Long Distance by Martin Boyce invites us to appreciate an industrial elegance with the media he employs in most of his exhibition pieces at Tanya Bonadkar Gallery. The sense of brutal with metal, due to its hardness in form, is alleviated by a sense of delicate appearance in the telephone communication device consistently presented in front of an ostensibly gentle perforation of a range of primary colors. Do we have a sense of communication in the compositions? Is there an idea of difficulty in, say, trying to speak through an analog telephone? Why would there be difficulty in expressing oneself to another?

‘Long Distance (I Remember Everything)’
2022
Painted aluminum, painted perforated steel, painted and stained steel, painted silicone moulded vacuum cast resin, coiled telephone cable
86 5/8 x 64 15/16 x 1 1/2 inches; 220 x 165 x 4 cm
Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles

‘Long Distance (Close Call)’
2022
Painted aluminum, painted perforated steel, painted and stained steel, painted silicone moulded vacuum cast resin, coiled telephone cable
65 1/2 x 43 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches; 166.5 x 110.5 x 4 cm
Courtesy the artist Martin Boyce and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles

‘Long Distance (Present Tense)’
2022
Painted perforated steel, painted aluminium, painted silicone moulded vacuum cast resin, coiled telephone cable
65 1/2 x 43 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches; 166.5 x 110.5 x 4 cm
Courtesy the artist Martin Boyce and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles

Perhaps it is a wish to be able to speak freely, easily, and not as an indefatigable power like the coarseness of the perforated steel? What does the seasoning of sparks of scuffs signify when compared to the polished surfaces of the smooth aluminum residing within each piece? While both are metallic, one represents a roughness while another an elevated presence. The latter being on a different plane, clearly distant from a scrapyard clearance. How then does this distance inform the works with the outdated telephonic system? Are these phone calls artifacts of a distant memory? Of a long distant connection? How frequently does it appear missing in continuation? In this austere isolation, do we have ardor or diffidence in picking up the phone? It is this balance of gentle with forceful in realizing a world which is initiated, moved, willed into action. It is this positive moral idea of effort and not wish which the mixed media by Mr. Boyce proudly brandishes.

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