Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: Artist Gilberto Zorio lifts our gaze with his suspended sculpture "Macchia II," from 1968. As we approach, the installation feels hidden in the room, hanging in a corner from the ceiling and extending about 15 feet in diameter above us. The materials, created from terracotta-colored plasticized PVC and beige-gray rope, suspend lightly from the ceiling, despite the work’s imposing size.

The bulk of the installation is created from a sheet of plasticized PVC less than an inch thick, flattened and stretched about 3 feet in diameter into a somewhat circular, organic shape, like an ink blot. From a distance the entire installation resembles a large spider web, a reference enhanced by eight thin strands of rope extending from the PVC center, stretching outward and parallel to the ceiling. The ropes are evenly spaced and the distance between them begins to widen as they extend farther from the center. They are knotted onto hooks that anchor them to the ceiling. The end of each rope is cut and frayed, hanging directly down from the knot about a foot, like a tassel.

From beneath the installation, the work appears more like a parachute in how the rubber splat is held where the ropes meet. The ropes fan out from a central circular ring smaller than a bracelet; its form is visible beneath the center of the rubber body. Each rope is attached to this ring, visually dividing the underside of the rubber splat into eight triangular sections as they expand outward.

Is this installation imposing or protecting? Perhaps it depends on our perspective.

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