Joshua Stein, Access
by :
Nando Alvarez-Perez
Joshua G. Stein, Access (2019). Photo: Nando Alvarez-Perez/Courtesy the artist
Several bronze cast forms are eerily lit and displayed across a black-and-white checker linoleum floor, conjuring desolate dreamscapes of cliffs, plateaus, and gloopy staircases. These works are part of Joshua Stein’s installation, Access, at 450 Rhode Island Street, a dingy pop-up space just up the street from the exploding Five Points neighborhood.
Access is a companion piece to Stein’s Isochronic Mountain, an installation in the observation deck of City Hall. At its center is a three-dimensional topographical “map” of Buffalo: each two-inch layer of the mountain reflects an interval of time necessary to reach its peak, downtown Buffalo, by public transit. Where Isochronic Mountain acts as a sort of sculptural infographic, Access, created from the same plaster molds as Mountain, breaks apart any coherent structure and rearranges the individual components into a fantastic no-place. Dizzying cliffs plunge into ragged valleys, and Escher-like plateaus connect together or lead nowhere. They are impressively cast, evocative bronzes created through a collaboration between the artist and the University at Buffalo.
Access is also a case study in how a strong work can be undermined by its exhibition venue, and the space at 450 Rhode Island Street is, frankly, dark, smelly, and unpleasant. That the space has no clear exhibition history and no clear ties to organizations or institutions that do, works against the artist, the venue itself becoming a sort of fantastic no-place, overlooked by even the most intrepid and engaged local art lovers. Similar pop-ups—most notably last year’s PLAY/GROUND in an old high school in Medina, New York—have shown that there is a great deal of local interest in off-beat art experiences, but a certain level of investment in promotion and venue maintenance is necessary for the audience to be able to properly engage with the work.
