Monika Sonowska’s artistic muse lies in the architectural elements that comprise cities. For El Jardín (The Garden), Sosnowska’s first solo exhibition in Mexico City, she plays with the megalopolis as though it is her personal imaginarium. Sosnowska takes her inspiration from the chaos through which the city still functions, embarking upon an organic search for architectural moments so absurd that they do not exist. El Jardín is also no exception to the deliberate artistic formula from which Sosnowska’s work derives, where she pulls site-specific and functional objects from their contexts and manipulates them beyond contextual recognition. The effect is a series of sculptures that flabbergast, befuddle and bewilder. Sosnowska removed each of the large-scale objects she uses from their urban contexts; then hung, propped, twisted and manipulated them into a remnant of their former selves.

Monika Sosnowska, El Jardín (installation view), 2011. Image courtesy the artist and Kurimanzutto, Mexico City. Photography by Michel Zabé y Omar Luis Olguín.

Consisting of a collection of massive large-scale objects, El Jardín fills the enormous cube of the Kurimanzutto gallery. Each sculpture is specific to Mexico City. Large metal garage doors hang precariously from the ceiling, converted into a propeller-like structure. A tire, small bucket and flower pot filled with cement sit heavily on the floor with thin steel beams protruding from their centers. A large winding metal staircase billows outwards, a sort of large and extremely heavy flower in bloom. But Sosnowska does not manipulate the sculptures enough to remove them of their functions, even though these objects now appear in an environment completely apart from their earlier urban setting. The large steel doors were obviously pulled from garage entrances that face bustling streets and open into the courtyards of private residences; and the flowering, winding steel staircase are exactly like those that lead to the maid’s quarters on the roof of a residential home.

Monika Sosnowska, El Jardín (installation view), 2011. Image courtesy the artist and Kurimanzutto, Mexico City. Photography by Michel Zabé y Omar Luis Olguín.

It is difficult to link the objects in the exhibition with the artist’s aim to encounter moments of non-existence. Indeed, it is clear and easy to recognize the real function of each of the objects and where they exist in the city itself.  The objects by themselves are beautiful. They have a stunning amount of movement and gesture as they fold, twist, bend and buckle, yet Sosnowska has not manipulated the objects enough to void them of their original contexts. It is obvious what the garage doors are meant for, as well as the cement pots and the winding staircases.  While the sculptures inspire a sense of awe from their massiveness, they do not assume the sense of bewilderment that she seeks. What is more successful is the element of silence that the exhibition exudes. Indeed the megalopolis is a garden of inexplicability inserted within the intersections and clashes of any great city. Massive and heavy, the work seems removed from the constant movement of the city itself.

El Jardín will be on view at Kurimanzutto in the San Miguel de Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City until January 14, 2012.