False/Positive

"I know it's wrong, clearly and demonstrably, to view this object as anything but hard steel, yet one sees it wrongly: as soft, thick folds of draping fabric transforming into crumpled cardboard or rubber tubing supporting a glossy black plastic cylinder, culminating in a series of six-by-six-inch steel boxes at the end of its three tangled tubes."

"Adding to the illusion of soft pliability is the distinct sense that the tubes are filling with air, as if internal pressure were pushing them outward from within, even as, paradoxically, they appear to be deflating at the same time. Much like those indefatigable tube men manically dancing up and down outside of used-car lots, extending and collapsing with each new breath, Cutting Corners appears impossibly suspended between two opposing movements of pressure: pushing out from within, buckling under from above."

"As one rotates around the sculpture, the illusory softness of the tubes suddenly hardens, reverting if not to steel exactly then to something steel-y, as if the industrial materiality of Cutting Corners maintains its sense of illusion by imitating something very similar to, without actually being, steel. As the material appears to shift from soft to hard, the outward and downward movements of the tubes no longer suggest the gentle pressure of filling and escaping air, but imply a decidedly more violent bending and crushing of metal."

Carol Bove's steel sculptures, exemplified by her 2018 work Cutting Corners, deliberately deceive viewers into perceiving soft materials like fabric, cardboard, or rubber despite being constructed from hard steel. The sculpture features folded tubes that appear to fill with air and deflate simultaneously, creating an impossible suspension between opposing pressures. As viewers rotate around the work, the perceived materiality shifts from soft to hard, transforming the visual impression from gentle air pressure to violent metal bending. This contradictory effect causes the sculpture to appear weightless from one angle yet incredibly heavy from another, creating a dynamic perceptual experience that challenges conventional understanding of material properties and sculptural weight.

Read at Artforum