14
Dec/16

ERNESTO NETO: THE SERPENT’S ENERGY GAVE BIRTH TO HUMANITY

14
Dec/16
Ernesto Neto’s “The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth to Humanity” welcomes visitors into its soothing passageways (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Ernesto Neto’s “The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth to Humanity” welcomes visitors into its soothing passageways (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
521 West 21st St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through December 16, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-414-4144
www.tanyabonakdargallery.com

For his first gallery exhibition in four years, Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has created another happy-making installation grounded in ritual, tradition, and custom. Inspired by his recent collaborations with the indigenous, shamanistic Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá) of South America, “The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth to Humanity” contains several living sculptures that welcome visitors into their inviting warmth. Neto’s trademark hand-dyed, crocheted work can be found throughout the two floors of Chelsea’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, dangling from the ceiling, hanging on the walls, and spread across the floor. The centerpiece is “Adam Boa Eve Apple Egg,” a large-scale, snakelike passage that leads to a communal womblike area where people can relax, lie down, play a bongo or guitar, and even put on a hat. “The spirit of the boa is an energy . . . It’s a vibration that is inside all the matter, and in all life,” Neto says of the work. That positivity, and Neto’s belief in humanity’s connectivity with nature, is evident in the titles of several of the wall pieces, including “Cosmic roots of the earth,” “Sprouting life,” “Life is love, love energy, from dark earth to light sky D L D L D L,” and, simply, “Joy.” Upstairs, visitors are greeted by a twisting helix ladder titled “e twin serpents, the stairway to life a”; in a small room, you can get comfy on “I am, yo soy, mantra light,” which evokes an umbrella at a beach resort. And in the bigger upstairs room, you can breathe in “Flying fern, cater-boa-pillar, cleaning air, cleaning earth,” a collection of potted plants and stones hanging from the ceiling, and and then stick your arm deep in the far wall piece for a special surprise. With “The Serpent’s Energy Gave Birth to Humanity,” Neto — who dazzled crowds with his giant, immersive “Anthropodino” at the Park Ave. Armory in 2009 — once again melds mind and body, earth and spirit in an energetic treat for the senses.