Leandro Erlich: Swimming Pool at PS1
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents Leandro Erlich: Swimming Pool, an extraordinary and visually confounding installation by the Argentine artist Leandro Erlich. Erlich has constructed one of his most well known and critically acclaimed works in PS1’s Duplex gallery: a full-size pool, complete with all its trappings, including a deck and a ladder. When approached from the first floor, visitors are confronted with a surreal scene: people, fully clothed, can be seen standing and walking beneath the surface of the water. It is only when visitors enter the gallery from the basement that they recognise that the pool is empty, its construction a visual trick fashioned by the artist. A large, continuous piece of acrylic spans the pool and suspends water above it, creating the illusion of a standard swimming pool that is both disorienting and humorous.
Leandro Erlich: Swimming Pool will be on view in P.S.1’s Duplex gallery until October 24, 2009