Maria Gaspar

Invisible Things Are Not Necessarily Not There (after T.M.), 2023

Cast glass

Dimensions variable

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Maria Gaspar’s Invisible Things Are Not Necessarily Not-There (after T.M.) comprises twenty-three glass casts of jail debris (cell bars and bricks) from Division I of the Cook County Jail in Chicago. What were once elements of an architecture of confinement and restraint – steel bars from jail cells and bricks from their walls – have here been recast into objects that evoke transparency, visibility, and release. 

The full installation includes all 23 cast-glass sculptures. Important for the artist, however, is that these transfigured objects are made portable and flexible. Here, The Pelican™ cases, aesthetic objects in their own right, join with the bars and bricks as a ready-made solution to at once, frame, protect, and afford the objects their continued mobility. A selection from the series will be on view at Seattle Art Fair.