KYLE ALDEN MARTENS | MUSCLE WORN & WEARING

From May 14 to June 25, 2022.

The acts of wrapping and encasing can be seen as ways to contain, conceal, or keep something in, but in Kyle Alden Martens’s “MUSCLE WORN & WEARING,” they also are acts of care and protection.

In truth, they are not either, but both: concealment and protection are not binary motivations. They are material actions inflected by intent and framing. In his handbag t-shirt jigsaw puzzle, pieces fit neatly into one another, that’s the catch of puzzles, there is only one space that perfectly suits a piece.

While we are inclined to focus on the larger image that the piece form, we also ought to consider the importance of discrete pieces, not simply in the service of the whole, but as they delineate space for the others. These works are instruments of care, creating new pockets for the safekeeping of precious objects, made precious by the care that is shown to them. A lesson on the tautology of belonging: what belongs somewhere must have somewhere to belong.