Orly Genger’s newest work, Masspeak, is a large-scale installation that occupies the entire gallery. Suggestive of a topographical landscape, the sculpture is made from over 200,000 feet of nylon climbing rope – enough to surround the island of Manhattan twice. Hundreds of separate sections were hand-made and painted by the artist in her studio and then moved to the gallery where she organized and stacked the forms into an all-encompassing structure.

This colossal and consuming sculpture evolved from her continued exploration of contradictory abstract dualities – minimalism and expressionism, stillness and chaos, presence and absence, creation and destruction. However, in contrast to Genger’s other work, Masspeak assumes form and meaning as the viewer moves on, through and around it, realizing that it is impossible to take in from one vantage point. Perception of the work becomes highly personal as Genger attempts to pull the viewer into a space that exists somewhere between memory and experience. To aid in this, the entire work was painted black – a color associated with absence, destruction, stillness and mystery.

Utilizing a self-invented knotting technique, having its roots in crochet, Genger’s highly structured, laborious process yields sculptural forms that transcend typical textile associations. Her work conveys a sense of struggle, suggesting issues of dominance, submission, and sexuality as well as the power to overcome obstacles both physical and psychological.