Anselm Reyle

Buenos dias, y’all. This past extended weekend I vacationed on/in the Gulf of Mexico with a few members of my family. We wanted to enjoy the white-sand beaches while they still have white sand. Mission Accomplished! Since Bobby posted about the oil spill a month ago, not a lot of successful oil stoppage has happened, or really any successful oil stoppage. As thousands more gallons of oil gush into the gulf, it’s becoming harder to comprehend the devastation even as the devastatio becomes more real.

There is no shortage of images of the oil spill. We’ve probably all seen video of the source of the oil spill: an unimpressive chimney of smokey-looking crude. But the lack of scale, or other reference, makes it impossible to understand the magnitude of what we’re seeing. Images of iridescent swirls in the dark water are just as frameless, unless a boat is in the picture. Overall, I’ve been surprised at how abstract most of these very real images look. They remind me of everything from the puddles in car washes, to episodes of Saved by the Bell, to a certain contemporary German artist: Anselm Reyle.

Anselm works in a variety of media, but I’ve been reminded of his crumpled foil compositions. There’s something murky about them that reminds me of the oil spill beyond the waves of mylar.  Maybe the sun has bleached my brain or maybe you agree with me. Even without an oil spill to remind me, I like Reyle’s work.

Alex.