Reading the Plinth
At Norval, a sculpture show where the furniture is doing more of the arguing than the work.
Every plinth in this show is a different height, and none of them is the height of a person.
You notice it in the knees first. Some works ask you to crouch, some sit just above the eyeline, and one, near the back, is raised so high that you see mostly its underside and the lights.
The plinth is the first review a sculpture gets.
The effect is of a room that has already ranked its contents. Height reads as importance whether the curator means it or not, and here it is hard to believe it was not meant.
The sculptures themselves are quieter than their furniture. Two of the smaller pieces would hold a table on their own. On their towers they look like evidence.
I kept wanting to see one piece on the floor. Just one, at the level of a shoe, where a visitor could decide for themselves how far to bend.
It is a clever hang. I am not sure it is a generous one.
Denzo Nyathi Curator.