Taylor De Cordoba presenting Chris Natrop

I recently visited the La Cienega Blvd. row of art galleries and shows. Out of the several of them I visited, Chris Natrop's show interested me the most. From the start I felt adventurous entering her gallery: the door was unmarked, there was no "open" sign to welcome visitors, and the windows were covered. Once I entered, I understood why it was necessary to block off the natural sources of light within the gallery. Natrop cleverly implemented colorful soft lighting, combined with the use of the actual gallery architecture to present hisartwork. The result was a beautiful ethereal effect that continued the atmosphere of mystery and complication. This installation was called myopic spring tangle, which featured hand-cut pieces of paper hanging from the ceiling in an inventive, tangled manner. These pieces of paper were also colored with watercolor. He also cut up mirrors to be displayed in a similar fashion; the mirrors themselves looked like threadwork.

I thought that these tangles of paper had resemblance to natural cities made of trees and flowers and water, much like one would expect in a fairy world. In reality, Natrop found inspiration in Los Angeles--mainly in the Los Angeles river, found in the narrow concrete channel, man-made and mainly used to control seasonal flooding. He wished to depict the relationship between man and nature: "Swaths of urban detritus carried by the runoff become ensnared in the tangle of wildlife. Frayed shopping bags, tangled nylon string, shredded clothing, strips of printed-matter festoon the leaf-stripped branches, jetsam flapping in the breeze like Tibetan prayer flags." I found it so interesting how Natrop chose to depict something most people would consider sewage channels as something so beautiful--then I remembered he had meant to make it ambiguous. The mirror he used was meant to reflect the viewer in an complex pattern, meant to keep the mind searching to understanding and decipher.

I found myself wondering not only the meaning and inspiration behind these pieces of artwork, but also the procedure it took to create them. At first glance they seem to be the result of mere x-acto knives and human concentration. However, in order to achieve the precision required to cut the pieces of paper and to structurally format them, Natrop wore powerful reading glasses to assist him. This lead him into a "myopic state", hence the name of his exhibition.

I really enjoyed the beauty and alluring yet unsettling nature of this exhibition. What at first glance looks attractive and mysterious becomes much more with deeper analysis of the art. One can really begin to see the struggle and psychological allusion underlaying his seemingly calm artwork.

-Joyce Pak