Reliefs: Topology Shift, 2011

Main room:
Topology Shift: Sunburst (Lower World), 2011
Painted polyurethane, gold leaf, convex mirror, site-specific plaster frame. Size: 44 x 51 inches (112 x 130 cm)

Topology Shift: Astoria, Oregon, 2011.
Painted polyurethane, site-specific plaster frame. Size: 49.5 x 44 inches (126 x 112 cm)

Topology Shift: North Pole, 2011.
Painted polyurethane, site-specific plaster frame. Size: 44 x 51 inches (112 x 130 cm)

Topology Shift: Pacific Coast, Oregon, 2011.
Painted polyurethane, site-specific plaster frame. Size: 49.5 x 44 inches (126 x 112 cm)

Topology Shift: Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2011.
Painted polyurethane, site-specific plaster frame. Size: 49.5 x 44 inches (126 x 112 cm)

Topology Shift: White Sea, Russia, 2011.
Painted polyurethane, site-specific plaster frame. Size: 49.5 x 44 inches (126 x 112 cm)

Second room:
Middle World (Black), 2011.
Painted polyurethane, site specific plaster frame. Size: 48 x 38 inches (122 x 98 cm)

Middle World (White), 2011.
Painted polyurethane, site specific plaster frame. Size: 48 x 38 inches (122 x 98 cm)

Eight molded panels, which once framed paintings in the palazzo’s interior, contained site-specific bas reliefs of geometric maps and abstract motifs relating to the cosmogony of sculptural characters and references presented throughout the exhibition.

In developing this project, Ginzburg embarked on a three-part journey, commencing in the American North West (Astoria, Oregon), continuing to St. Petersburg and then to the White Sea, the site of the Soviet Gulag prison camps.

The exhibition encompassed four rooms and two floors and included three large-scale sculptural installations, eight site-specific bas reliefs, photography, paintings, a video installation and a series of works on paper. The central narrative force for the exhibition was a poetic and evocative record of the expedition to “map the void” and search for the mythological land of Hyperborea, “beyond the Boreas” (beyond the North Wind).