Director, Glenn Lowry: Curator Jeffrey Grove.
Curator, Jeffrey Grove: The columns are maybe one of the first instances we see of Genzken specifically anthropomorphizing the sculptures. By naming them as she's done— Kai, Daniel,_Isa_—she's conferring on them this human aspect. So whether we would infer that from looking at the object or not, she's already predetermining that we'll receive it that way.
Genzken stated that in deciding to name these sculptures, one of the reasons was memory, so that each time she recalled one titled Kai orDaniel, she would remember the materials of which that work was composed.
Clearly one of the most obvious references that the columns make is to architecture, from ancient architecture to present day monolithic skyscrapers. And of course Genzken loves New York. She loves the skyscrapers of New York and of cities throughout the world. These columns are directly related to that. And I think they're monolithic monuments at the same time that they're very human objects. So, unlike many bodies of Genzken's work, it is a dividing line between the social and the personal.