Charles Harlan at Venus over Manhattan: is the essence of beauty in the way human beings protect it?

There are only ten days left to visit the solo show by Charles Harlan at Venus Over Manhattan, in New York, and we warmly recommend to do it, especially if you love masters of the Seventies such as Walter De Maria or Carl Andre, or certain established contemporary artists like Carol Bove or Oscar Tuazon.

 

Ishtar on arriving at the gate of the land of no return

To the gate keeper thus addressed herself:

Gate keeper, ho, open thy gate
Open thy gate that I may enter

If thou openest not the gate to let me enter I will break the door

I will wrench the lock, I will smash the doorposts, I will force the doors

 

This passage from the book titled “The Descent of the Goddess Ishtar Into the Lower World” is the key Harlan has given to the visitor for reading the long metallic wall by which the gallery’s main space has been enclosed, leaving only a narrow corridor to walk around. A 10 foot roll-down gate is in front of the wall, to underline the idea of something that is closed. Clearly Ishtar – the East Semitic Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, sex and war – refers to the Roman Venus, whom the gallery is dedicated yo. Do we need anything else to ponder over how beauty is related to the idea of inaccessibility? And, could the essence of beauty lie in the way human beings protect it as the artist seem indeed to suggest it?

July 18, 2015