Calvin Ma's homebodies, looking from the outside in

Calvin Ma, Look forward. Ceramic, enamel, stain. 12x5x7″. Courtesy, Sherrie Gallerie

Calvin Ma, detail, Look forward

The term “construction” seems better than “sculpture” to fit Ma’s works, as they have the exaggerated joints and fittings that puppets and stuffed animals have. They are figurative, but more decorative and abstract than realistic. Although the artist invested infinite care in fabricating fine details, this care was not spent creating illusions of visible reality. They can, however, be profoundly realistic, clear delineations of what the inner eye sees.

Ma explores the metaphor of eyes as windows. Many figures' eyes rest behind moldings and sills, but we still wonder why, since the expression is so flat: there seems to be nothing to protect with an extra layer. If we try to invade the figure's privacy, there seems to be nothing interesting. Those shadowed eyes seem to give neither information nor expression.

Calvin Ma, figure of animal instincts

But it's the inner eye that Ma is about, we can keep looking. On the sides of the heads of several figures there are more windows and in them we find hidden figures peering at us obliquely. Their own secret heads are fully formed and they look out from hiding positions.


These unexpected faces that peek out from secret attics, hidden where one would certainly not expect to find them, remind us of those of Anne Frank, the runaway American slaves or the millions of others who, over the centuries, were kept in airless attics to avoid detection or being overtaken by pursuers.


The chiefs of Ma's people are houses in themselves: Ma calls them, with precision and poetry, “homebodies”.
It is no exaggeration to see the people in the side windows as the people trapped inside the artist's head – like those trapped in Everyman's head. Ma speaks personally about the issue of social anxiety and relates the motivation for this body of work to her reality as a shy person who prefers her inner life to the company of others. He found a phenomenally precise and potent way of expressing a feeling state.

Calvin Ma, Stretched Thin. Ceramic, glaze, stain, 14x6x9″ Courtesy of Sherrie Gallerie

Ma homebodies do not experience the world only through perception, through vision and thought. Several of the figures in the exhibition have, such as Stretched thin, portals where we locate the heart and guts, other places where we all know our anxieties manifest as turmoil and pain.


The figures in this show are all paired with animals. Your connections are not easy. People balance tenuously either because they are as clumsy as people with mechanical joints would be, or because there is not much sympathy between the species. It could also be that animals are introverted. They want to be alone.

Calvin Ma, Falling backwards, detail, fox belly below, human figure above.

The detail in “Falling Behind,” a piece that shows a fox and a person falling upside down, reveals a door in the fox's belly. Most animals have these openings, but they are placed in a way that obscures them. (Ma is meticulous enough to incorporate such details even when they are unlikely to be seen.) It does suggest, though, that the connection between humans and animals may not lie in their relationships, but in the idea that they are all wild in nature. a primary form. Why does any creature leave? Do society's rewards really fulfill the promises made to them? Is our own company so poor or insulting?


Visually, I found this show to be a bit boring. More specifically, I found that the extreme attention to detail, repeated so often and sincerely across materials of the same size, colors, patterns, and concepts, came close to boring me.


But I think what I found tedious ended up being one of the biggest attractions of Ma's work. With a week to go, the show was two works away from being completely sold out, despite the four-figure prices.


The similarities that I thought bordered on the bland are probably part of the wide appeal that Ma's work had for audiences and buyers. The repetition of features, shapes and colors can very well be explained simply by Ma's self-portrait. So it is simply a way of representing something that appears many times.


Perhaps it is more likely, however, that the lack of dramatic distinction is part of the point. “We all live in our heads. We are burdened with anxious thoughts and worldviews biased by the oblique views we take from hidden places. We are probably like most others, but fear makes us big in imagination and small. in truth; our senses of proportion are strange.”

Calvin Ma, Falling behind

Which brings me back to the “quirky” aspect of Ma’s figures. Her look is definitely idiosyncratic. They have a somewhat futuristic look from a retro stance, which makes me worry about possible satisfaction with a camp or short-lived aesthetic. Mitigating this possible over-reliance on “the look,” however, is Ma’s commitment to craftsmanship and materials.


Ma's work is warmly disciplined: he spares no detail, no matter how many times he has to repeat the same stroke in a piece, let alone a large series. No one works like this in the interest of appearance, style or attitude. This is done out of compulsion, at least, and conviction, at most; to solve a problem or reveal a secret; exorcise pain or open space for the admission of some discovery.


Ma will make her way at her own pace, it's clear. I for one can tolerate any outcomes in the interest of an honest process, full of time to admit the surprises that arise along the way.