Fire Island Story 2009

Gianfranco Baruchello's "Fire Island Story" is a mixed media box construction, a world in a box, where he seems to be thinking through making, or making through thinking. He uses materials like a painter uses colors, seemingly randomly placed marks, creating a layered sense of time. Look at the grouping of small color fields in the center, and on the left, applied like a quick thought, a record of activity, this contrasts with the found images and objects, which add a sculptural depth to the piece. That sketched-out hand on the left, flat and graphic, becomes a kind of symbol, or guide. With its palm facing us, it invites us to enter, to reach into the construction, but that’s impossible, because the surface is sealed off, like a memory that's just out of reach. Like Schwitters’ Merzbau, Baruchello’s assemblage gives us an intimate, personal look at the creative process of art making. And like Cornell's boxes, it opens up a space of imagination.