Michelle Lopez exhibition NY

The  Simon Preston Gallery in New York is currently exhibiting the new work of 39 year old Brooklyn based artist, Michelle Lopez. The work is an installation of various objects such as a compressed car, a tree lodged through a temporary wall, sand bags and what seems to be the flames of a 'black' fire. Although all the object have no apparent physical relationship, they all seems to convey the feeling of capture or the halting of something that was once moving. The compressed car is placed, or rather left, leaning against the side of the wall - somewhat like an abandoned mattress. The tree, although leafless, is not merely a sprouting fledgling but a fully glorified sycamore, which is lodged into a temporary wall that separates the room into two spaces. The wall has been constructed so that it is small enough for the audience to still be able to navigate their way around it. 

The branches of the tree occupy the entire 'other' space while the trunk of the tree protrudes from the wall on the same side as the compressed car, black flames and the curious sand bags. Each sand bag is attached to a rope which seems to be anchoring some unseen force that hovers above the ceiling and out of sight. What i like about this work is the way it seems to amalgamate both narrative and abstraction, leaving you with the confusing mixture of movement, stagnation and the curiosity of what you 'could' be missing. This is the first show she had had in eight years, perhaps these feeling are a symbol of her rebirth into the 'art scene' or the period in which her work remained unseen and unpublicized? What ever the reasons or answers, i think this would be a interesting exhibition to see.