In an opening-day walk-through of the big, densely installed and (in both senses) stunning survey of his work at the ICA in Philadelphia, Barry Le Va offered this insight: “Ultimately it becomes a question of, can you tell the difference between order and disorder?” It’s a very good question. Like most Conceptualist-type puzzles, it suggests others: Is distinguishing order from its opposite a primary problem for Le Va or an ancillary one, tangent to concerns with symbolic content? Or, with respect to his famously sleuth-baiting work, is it altogether a red herring? And, not least, how much importance should we attach to what the artist says?
May 1, 2005
