Love in an Elevator: Leandro Erlich at Sean Kelly Gallery

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Love in an Elevator: Leandro Erlich at Sean Kelly Gallery

Installation view of Leandro Erlich: Two Different Tomorrows at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. September 10 – October 22, 2011. Photography: Jason Wyche, New York. © Leandro Erlich. Courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery, New York.

A master of illusion, Argentinean artist Leandro Erlich has amazed international audiences with his whimsical installations, sculptures, photographs, and videos for more than a decade. A darling of art biennials, Erlich is best known for his magical Swimming Pool installation, which was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and more recently confounded viewers above and below its fictional waterline at MoMA PS1 for nearly two years. Represented by Sean Kelly Gallery for the past three years, Erlich finally makes his solo debut here with his most ambitious show to date. Centered on the everyday architecture of elevators, Two Different Tomorrows presents a series of sculptural stage sets that cleverly toy with our perception of the real.

Stuck Elevator creates the illusion of an elevator car pulled from its structure and stuck on the floor below—a trick that is actually achieved with a mirror that reflects the space above. Next up, Elevator Maze beautifully reproduces a bank of elevators that seem to be mirroring one another, but are really physically doubled—a jarring affect when you suddenly see a stranger in place of your reflection. Taking us to a Hitchcockian realm, Elevator Shaft offers a dark, cabled passageway turned horizontally to become a surreal corridor connecting the rear galleries, where we encounter a skylight that’s actually a video projection and an elevator door that opens at regular intervals to reveal life-size images of shoppers in a Tokyo store. Cagey and poetic from the get go, this triumphant show forces us to consider reality anew.