Liliana Porter, Man with Axe and Other Stories (detail), 2017; figurines, objects, and wooden base, dimensions variable. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami. Photo: John SchweikertLiliana Porter, Man with Axe and Other Stories, 2017; figurines, objects, and wooden base, dimensions variable. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami. Photo: Photo: John SchweikertInstallation view of Liliana Porter, Man with Axe and Other Stories at the Frist Museum. Photo: John Schweikert
Argentina-born artist Liliana Porter’s provocative arrangements of objects and toys tell stories that are at once psychologically charged and slyly humorous. The centerpiece of the exhibition, Man with Axe, features a tiny plastic figure of an axe-wielding man who appears to have demolished an array of items, from dollhouse furniture to large vases, clocks, and even a full-size piano. This trail of destruction signals both the entropic effects of time and the collapse of historical progress that can be caused by a single agent of chaos. In Man with Axe, Porter (b. 1941) asks big questions: Who are we? What do we do? What’s it about?
from the accompanying exhibition text
Liliana Porter, To Do It: Red Sand III, 2020; sand and figurine on wooden base. Photo: John SchweikertLiliana Porter, Man with Axe and Other Stories, 2017; figurines, objects, and wooden base, dimensions variable. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami. Photo: John SchweikertLiliana Porter, Untitled at Sea with Gardener, 2016; acrylic and assemblage on canvas. Photo: John SchweikertLiliana Porter, Forced Labor (red sand), 2008; red sand, figurine and white shelf. Photo: John Schweikert
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