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Rainey Knudson

44. Ursula von Rydingsvard, Gusta

Ursula von Rydingsvard, Gusta, 2018. Cedar and graphite, approx. 90 × 37 × 29 inches.

In Spanish, gusta can mean tasting, enjoying, and loving. Ursula von Rydingsvard’s sculpture by that name looks like a sort of mushrooming wine stopper when viewed on a screen, but in person, it’s a massive tower of craggy, raw cedarwood that very much commands the room. The wall text suggests it might be read as a sort of ancient guardian or fertility figure, though again, in person it doesn’t invite anthropomorphizing. Rather, this is an invitation to an earthy, primal kind of gusta, impassive in the way of nature. You enjoy it as you do a mountain or a tree.



 

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