Walk the Line
Su-Mei Tse Proposition de détour, 2006
Tse has thrown her socially charged art onto the floor in the form of a rug.
Applying the minimalist tradition of using industrial materials, Su-Mei Tse acquired a large wool carpet, had it professionally printed, and then cut it into the shape of a maze. The colorful rug, titled Proposition de Detour, measures nine meters (nearly 30 feet) in diameter and is the only object on display in the expansive, white Peter Blum Gallery.
The maze is a copy of an inlaid design found at the 12th century Chartres Cathedral in France. Historians suspect the maze warned parishioners about the entanglements of sin or as a mini-pilgrimage. The rug's print is from a 16th-century Persian carpet, which features stylized animals, birds, and plants found in images of paradise.
Born to a British mother and a Chinese father, Tse is accustomed to bridging cultures. By merging contrasting visual ideas of salvation, Tse has created a subtle meditation on the complexities of cultural relationships.
Trained as a classical cellist, Tse often incorporates aspects of music in her videos, photographs, sculptures, and installations; here. Rhythm and movement become spatial as the viewer becomes her performer.
Mazes are known as "tour puzzles." The "solver" must walk the route to find the goal or solution. You can try to follow the narrow path with your eyes, but the tangled course is best explored by walking through it. Tse's maze is unicursal-a "perfect maze"-without branches or dead ends. Though complex, concentric circles offer only one solution.
Entering at the starting point the way may seem obvious and your goal within easy reach. But turn a corner, and you suddenly find yourself at the outer edge again. If you follow the path, resisting the cynical temptation to cheat, you will have traveled the entire puzzles length and width to reach the center.
Tses carpeted journey, which starts as a game, becomes a meditation on our willingness to go the distance to understand our own goals as well as those of others. Peter Blum Gallery, 526 W. 29th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-244-6055.
