Great Expectations and The Wreck of the Hope
2008
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
Los Angeles, California

Power relationships are also at the heart of Olga Koumoundouros work. But while Shana Lutkers work focuses on an exploration of the relationship between the private and the public, Koumoundouros scrutinizes how these forces become prevalent in the materialization of the American Dream and more specifically, how the social dynamics of upward mobility cause problems to the social and environmental context.

Presenting two sculptures in two opposite project spaces, Koumoundouros work is formally based on opposites: one room displays a floor sculpture, the other a work wedged underneath the ceiling. The floor work, a bizarre pioneer wagon made from a garden car, covered with bark and a pair of Levis jeans, epitomizes the problems of mobility and the movement toward opportunity. Seized up in paralysis, it is embalmed in layers of white plaster. In the other room, a massive tar covered metal jack jams a crystal chandelier into the ceiling. Held up by the brutal upward force of the steel jack, the chandelier converts into a powerful image of forces pushing and pulling, of violent thrusts and stagnant frustration, both such essentially human endeavors.