Slag Gallery is pleased to announce its next exhibition, The Substance of Earth: O Sertão, curated by Simon Watson and featuring three Brazilian artists-- Leandro Júnior, Lidia Lisbôa and João Trevisan—whose work explores the spirit of Brazil’s dry rugged outback region known as the sertão. 

The sculpture Gordian is from a body of work about the East River. It began by watching the tide change the directional of flow of the river. All that weight of water reversing its flow felt magical, and seemed to be bound in knotted lines. I was rendering this idea and finding objects, like the motorcycle frame, at extreme low tide and incorporating them into the work. Gordian was created from schedule-40 2.5 inch straight pipe. It was bent cold in a pipe bender, cut and welded back together, then ground to finish. Like the fabled knot of Gordian, the piece twists without being able to be undone.