Access a slow-looking exercise related to this work.

Transcript
Marilee Talkington: In "Columna (Reticularea cuadrada)," this sculpture made by Gego in 1972, several layers of large square wire-mesh sheets are loosely stacked and suspended, one following the other to create a rectangular, column-like structure. Combined with gravity and negative space, they come together to create a vertically oriented wire sculpture.

This wire sculpture is masterful in its simplicity. Four vertical wires attach to the ceiling above the ethereal sculpture in a rectilinear shape. These four vertical wires are the core on which everything is built. The hooks in the ceiling are inconspicuous but reinforced to give the sculpture a hovering effect. The four central wires run through the entire 11-foot height of the sculpture, barely visible underneath the square meshes through which they pierce. They reemerge, with visual clarity, at the bottom of the sculpture, weighted down with black teardrop-shaped lead weights on each end, notably the only solid mass in the entire sculpture.

The central mass of the sculpture is created using the square-shaped wire meshes, each about four feet by four feet, stacked up along the four vertical support wires. The individual wire grids are made of thin wire that the artist has manually warped and curved so that the layers don’t lay flat.

Layers and layers of these topographical wire landscapes are unevenly spaced on the vertical axis. The layers do not physically entangle, but it is difficult to separate the individual layers from their constituents visually. This layering tricks the eye into seeing an optical effect of movement: the clarity of the form seemingly disappears and reappears depending on the viewer’s position in space. Although the materials used have a thin and delicate quality, there is a charged tension in the frayed edges and coarse handling of the industrial material.

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