Nadine Robinson

Born 1968 in London, lives and works in New York









In the New Testament’s Book of Revelation, Wormwood is the name of the “great star” that falls from heaven to earth, poisons “the third part of the waters,” and kills many people. Nadine Robinson’s Wormwood (2005), a large, seven-pointed star featuring over 500 incandescent light bulbs, alludes to this dire prophesy but also conflates impassioned religiosity and apocalyptic terrors with razzle-dazzle entertainment and eye-catching advertisements, since it loosely suggests a glittering electric sign at an amusement park or outside a Las Vegas casino. At once alluring and frightening, Robinson’s blazing sculpture gives off intense light and heat and has an overwhelming presence. While it alludes to an epic catastrophe predicted in the Bible, it also connects with current crises: our wastefulness and over consumption, grinding wars, a near-collapse of the international financial system, global warming, mounting environmental havoc in many parts of the world, and the tremendous disaster of Hurricane Katrina which destroyed so much of New Orleans, among others.

Working with eclectic materials including light and sound, Robinson is known for visually (and aurally) stunning works that involve a dense overlay of cultural information, and that also have pronounced religious connotations. In alles grau in grau malen (2005), hundreds of speakers set in an 11-foot tall x 45-foot wide wall construction mix Roman Catholic funeral chants and Rastafarian music with samples of film scores from apocalyptic movies such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Matrix (1999). The arrangement of the speakers is based on the figural layout of Michelangelo’s fresco The Last Judgment (1536–41) at the Sistine Chapel, and also refers to c. 1980s boom boxes, while the whole work, combining many sources, is a sonic mélange of doomsday scenarios. Robinson’s Tri-Christus (2008), recently exhibited at Site Santa Fe, features three dazzling steel and light fixture structures atop the museum which could either be crosses or X’s; the central Christian symbol, graveyard memorials, a 2002 movie having to do with a nefarious plot to end the world, X-rated pornographic movies, logos for several brands of beer, and various examples of Minimalist sculpture all intersect. While incorporating Christian iconography and evoking apocalyptic visions, Robinson’s remarkable sculptures equally delve into a secular world of dance music, Hollywood films, electric carnival and advertisement signs, and pulsating street parties.

 

Exhibitions | Bibliography

Exhibitions:
2008–09: Prospect .1, New Orleans International Biennial, New Orleans/LA
2008: Lucky Number Seven. SITE Santa Fe, 7. Internationale Biennale, Santa Fe/NM
2006: Nadine Robinson. Alles Grau, Studio Museum Harlem, New York

Bibliography:
Thomas Lax, “On to Watch,” in artkrush.com, August 20, 2008
Christine Y. Kim, “Nadine Robinson: Alles Grau,” in Studio. The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine, spring 2006
Holland Cotter, “Nadine Robinson: Alles Grau,” in The New York Times, September 8, 2006