Albuquerque Journal

Pfaff retrospective reveals a lifetime of wonders
By Wesley Pulkka
For the Journal
   
   “Remembering Barbara Pfaff: Work from 1980-2006” is a wonder-filled installation of sculpture and drawings revealing the range, visual power and imagination of a vibrant artist.
   
   “I want to make art that is raw enough and flexible enough and forceful enough to express the impulses of the soul: To fix frenzies in their flight,” Pfaff wrote in 1988.
   
   From insouciant abstractions made of baling wire and plaster to cast-bronze boats that look like crawling insects Pfaff reveled in the joy of her soul's impulses.
   
   The predominantly black-and-white forms create the ambience of a shaman's hut in a long-forgotten forest. Pfaff created two series of staff-based ritual objects that are topped by small boat shapes. These mixed-media pieces can be seen as spears, hooks or scoops depending on which direction they are mounted on the wall.
   
   In the series titled “10 Bound Departures,” each boat form is open to metaphorically receive passengers or cargo. In the “Yellow Jackets” series the boat forms are enclosed by wrappings. The rods are inverted so the “boats” would act as scoops were they not enclosed.
   
   Alexander Calder's circus figures made from wire spring to mind while viewing Pfaff's numerous wire-based sculptures. Coils, spirals, helixes and curls abound in these works along with their cast shadows becoming line drawings in space.
   
   Though some wire pieces are figurative in nature, most are botanically inspired, as are her horned globes that hang from the ceiling. The spherical works are made of plaster, cow horns and wax. They are like giant seed pods capable of producing Herculean-scale plants.
   
   Pfaff grew up in Los Alamos, where she spent countless hours riding a palomino named Chico. Pfaff and Chico climbed mesas and descended into canyons where they discovered antlers, animal bones, horns, woody vines and seed pods.
   
   Though she lived as an adult in New York, Los Angeles and State College, Pa., Pfaff had found her inspirational roots during her youth in northern New Mexico.
   
   In her travels I'm sure she ran across works by Eva Hesse, Henry Moore, Calder and other members of the artistic zeitgeist who may have reinforced or influenced her aesthetic but Pfaff was a rugged individualist.
   
   Her cast bronze “Drunken Boat, 1992” depicts an inverted hull crawling along using its extended ribs as legs. For Pfaff the boat form could become a stand in for the crescent moon, the shell of an animated insect or the symbol of power topping a shaman's staff.
   
   A poignant series of small drawings in the side hallway were drawn during the last days of Pfaff's life. In them one can see her sense of awe of living things as well as her sense of humor.
   
   This is a great show and one of the best installations I've seen in a long while. It takes time and effort from the viewer to discover all of the nooks and crannies filled with Pfaff's work. It's well worth a visit. Pfaff died of cancer in 2006.
   
   Proceeds from sales of Pfaff's work will go to the University of New Mexico Cancer Research and Treatment Center.