Linda Yablonsky , Time Out New York, June 19-26, 2003, p. 60

"Dust Memories" Swiss Institute, through Aug 2

Even in hard times, New York never runs short of dust. It clings to closets and in corners, piles on windowsills and dances in the air. Dust is proof of our existence, yet we sweep it out of sight. This modest show gives us an international group of artists who have picked up their dust and made philosophic, comic and even romantic use of it.

Pianito, for example, is an amusing little video by Jordi Colomer, whom we see puffing on a cigarette and plinking a life-size, cardboard baby grand. Then, running a hand over the "keyboard," he raises extravagant clouds of you-know-what with a flourish sure to win every New Yorker's heart. Another video, by Jonathan Horowitz, documents the burning of a cigarette, and unexpectedly turns suspenseful as the ask grows impossibly long; watching it finally fall is like witnessing a beheading. Also intriguing is Claudio Parmiggiani's library interior, a grisaille image entirely created from the smoke residue of an apartment fire.

Even more unexpected is a murky landscape by Piet Mondrian from 1907-08, before he picked up simple grids and primary colors. Another surprise is Dario Robleto's Skeleton Wine (2002), and inscribed carafe that looks as if it were made from terracotta but was actually cast, according to the checklist, with "dust from every bone in the body." Curator Emmanuel Latreille has gathered work that can be too precious, like Michael Ross's thimble of household dust, or obtuse, like David Poissenot's dust-and-jam cadaver. And Jean Dupuy's peep-show dust storm doesn't work at all. However, there is enough here of substance to give the stuff to which we will all return a meaningful second glance.
-Linda Yablonsky