Leandro Erlich - Latin America New York Tuesday, November 15, 2011 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private Collection

  • Exhibited

    New Orleans, New Orleans Biennial, 1 November 2008- 18 January 2009 (another example exhibited)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Leandro Erlich has built his internationally successful career out of subverting preconceived notions of the “normal”. Influenced by Jorge Luis Borges and magical realism, Erlich masterfully dissects specific components of our reality, turning the ordinary into the bizarre and unsettling. He has created mirrors with no reflection and has made it rain indoors. In doing so, he proposes that reality is a fiction we all subscribe to, and like fiction, it can be both beautiful and tragic.

    “I first visited [New Orleans] in 1999, when I was doing the CORE residency program in Houston. I was enchanted by New Orleans. Coming from a Latin American culture, I felt close to the architecture and the European feel of downtown New Orleans. It was not until many years later, after Hurricane Katrina, that I went back to visit the city to view possible sites for the biennial. Downtown was pretty much the same. It wasn't badly affected by the hurricane. Then I went to the Lower Ninth Ward, which had been struck hard. The whole neighborhood had been washed out by the storm. When someone first took me there, I thought it was an underdeveloped area. Then I saw cement foundations from houses that were made out of wood, and I realized that nothing else remained. It gave me goose bumps, and strangely reminded me of visiting the Rothko Chapel. There’s no trace of the tragedy, just the remaining parts of houses. Knowing the history of what was there and that it’s all gone—it’s incredible. It was an extraordinary place. There’s a spiritual sense to it. After visiting that site, I realized there was no way that I could bring preconceived ideas to the site. It was the presence of the absence that struck me…

    Window and Ladder, like so many of my works, presents an impossible situation. The ladder is leaning against a window from the remaining parts of a house. It’s intended to commemorate loss. We can never forget what happened and we have to rebuild. Bringing back what was lost in the flood is important, but you have to make sure that the memory is never washed away.”

    (Leandro Erlich quoted in: P. Laster, “Interview: Leandro Erlich”, Artkrush, Issue #96, 29 October 2008)

ARGENTINE

24

Window and Ladder- Too Late for Help

2008
Metal, wood and fiberglass.
Ladder: 189 x 23 in. (480.1 x 58.4 cm).
Window: 95 x 107 x 10 1/2 in. (241.3 x 271.8 x 26.7 cm).

This work is from an edition of five plus two artist's proofs.
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for $92,500

Latin America

14 & 15 November 2011
New York