Also this issue:

Love Songs
-David Anthony Fox

Low Spirits
-David Anthony Fox

Underneath the Sari
-Helen i-lin Hwang

Willkommen
Philadelphia hosts a convention dedicated to the art of the cabaret.
-David Anthony Fox

Laura Zigman
-Alex Richmond

May 30-June 5, 2002

art

The Bone Collector

Charles LeDray, <i>Milk and Honey</i> (detail,
1994-96), porcelain, glass and wood.

Charles LeDray, Milk and Honey (detail, 1994-96), porcelain, glass and wood.

by Susan Hagen

Charles LeDray, Sculpture 1989-2002Through July 14, Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 South 36th St., 215-898-5911

Charles LeDray got hooked on art when he worked as a guard at the Seattle Art Museum and was smitten by fastidiously handcrafted art from all around the world, especially Neolithic Chinese jades, Mughal powder horns, African masks and Southeast Asian jewelry and textiles. Many nights, LeDray has said, he would leave the museum “with a burning desire to make something -- anything -- inspired by spending the day with great works of art.” For the past 13 years, as demonstrated in this truly marvelous exhibition, LeDray has harnessed this passion for “making” by laboriously creating sculptures based on ordinary objects. That LeDray, born in Seattle and now based in New York, is having his first one-person museum show right here in Philadelphia is much to the credit of Claudia Gould, ICA director and curator of the exhibition.

LeDray applies his unique abilities as an impassioned autodidact and a meticulous multimedia craftsman to the common objects he uses for subject matter (clothes, buttons, hats, vessels, furniture, toys, etc.), to make sculptures that hint provocatively at his memories and emotional states. S.A.M., 1994, is a copy, perhaps even a portrait, of the uniform he wore while he worked at the Seattle Art Museum. At about 25 inches tall, and not at all useful or wearable, the garment -- including hand-sewn jacket, shirt, tie and trousers -- is a little piece of personal history that the artist shares quite simply with the viewer. In this piece, and many of the other sculptures in the show, the subject is distilled through a reduction in scale into a more emotionally intense version of its source.

LeDray’s sculptures are full of other meanings as well, sometimes historical or socio-political. Come Together is a small denim shirt (that could be worn by my cat) that evokes the 1960s and draws on the artist’s personal history -- LeDray was taught to sew at age 4 by his “hippie” mother. The shirt is elaborately embroidered with flowers, peace signs, hearts and other designs and is displayed on a metal rack with its sleeves outstretched and an arch of even tinier clothing extends buoyantly from one cuff to the other. Village People, 1993 and 1997-2002, is an ongoing series of small hats that is emblematic of the gay pride movement. Sixty-four hats made of felt, fabric, leather and other materials, and representative of a variety of personalities from decorous to flamboyant, are arranged in a long row along two sides of the gallery just out of reach.

In another series of sculptures, LeDray has respectfully carved and constructed tiny objects out of real human bone -- a disquieting reminder of both the impermanence of life and the amazing durability of the human skeletal system. Door, 1999, is a finely detailed six-panel door, about 2 inches

by 5 inches, outfitted with all of the necessary hardware, including hinges, lock set and knobs. This tiny and unused door suggests a metaphorical transition between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Also made of human bone, Buttons, 2000-02, is a display of 130 buttons of many shapes and sizes. Although they are extremely beautiful, I cringe a little at the thought of handling them. The subtle colors of the bone in these pieces, ranging from ivory to tan to pinkish-gray, are incongruously lovely. (Note: The artist purchased the bone from a mail-order company.)

In a tour de force, Milk and Honey, 1994-96, LeDray has filled a large wood-framed glass case with 2,000 tiny hand-thrown vessels, all pristinely white. The irrepressible uniqueness of the each of the innumerable vessels -- bowls, vases, teapots, coffee mugs, goblets and more -- is an inspired vision of a joyful world of emotional embodiment. Plus, the glowing light reflected off of them is truly awe-inspiring. This sculpture, and the rest of Charles LeDray’s wonderful show, produces an effect similar to the industriously carved or painted religious art of the Middle Ages, or to Chinese jades and rhinoceros-horn libation cups. Now, as it was then, good workmanship, done generously and cheerfully, is innately healthy for the human spirit.