As if tearing a page from Salvador Dali’s playbook, Korean sculptor Wook Jang Cheung’s fluid and polished steel sculptures on display at Crystals portray hefty, robust mammals on spindly, vastly elongated legs. But rather than the dreamlike or deserted, almost post-apocalyptic landscapes in Dali’s paintings, Cheung’s animals (in this specific exhibit) are set into the angular, well-lit interior of the Daniel Libeskind building anchored with high-end shops. The location makes a perfect (but somewhat incidental) annotation to Cheung’s exhibit, designed—and titled Long Journey Home—to reflect the journey of humans over the thousands of years and “unseen destinations.”
Curated by Laura Henkel of Sin City Gallery, Long Journey Home places small clusters of towering deer, camels and elephants in three roped-off locations, as if part of their respective herds moving across the landscape, cautious and curious, nomadic and foraging. Made of steel to represent endurance and strength, their mirrored finish allows people to see their reflections. The animals’ height (some reach 10 feet), Cheung says, represents the magnificence of trees.
Long Journey Home, through October 13; Monday-Thursday, 6 a.m. -11 p.m.; Friday-Sunday, 6 a.m.-midnight. The Shops at Crystals, 590-9299.
