Patricia L. Boyd: Ceiling Analysis – A Contemporary Art Exhibition at Secession, Austria

Patricia L. Boyd's first institutional solo exhibition in Austria features newly commissioned works, including a central sculpture that lowers the gallery ceiling. The exhibition explores the interdependency between external architecture and internal mental space, questioning societal expectations and the nature of limits.

Ceiling Analysis marks Patricia L. Boyd’s inaugural institutional solo exhibition in Austria, presenting two commissioned artworks. The exhibition's focal point is a significant sculpture of the same title, suspended from the ceiling of the Grafisches Kabinett, which effectively lowers the gallery's perceived height. This piece is dimensionally identical to the ceiling of Boyd’s psychoanalyst's office in New York, prompting reflection on boundaries and personal limits. Boyd articulates, “A ceiling is part of a room, but it is also a limit. Does nearing an endpoint require a cataloguing of loss incurred along the way? There is only so much I can do to change the behaviour I repeat. I keep speaking and reworking. She is behind me.” This body of work delves into the intricate relationship between perceived "external" and "internal" realities, acknowledging their complex permutations. It engages with the gallery's architecture while serving as a metaphor for the formation of individual mental landscapes and, conversely, the pressures of societal conformity. Boyd's exhibition is deeply rooted in her personal experience of the reclined, horizontal posture adopted during psychoanalytic sessions. The exhibition questions the implications of relinquishing an upright, standing position, which is often associated with hierarchical thinking. The materials employed in the central sculpture are diverse, including hand-pressed and etched aluminum sheets, filler, metal braces, steel, ropes, and sheep wool. Boyd meticulously reconstructs the original ceiling, replicating its distinctive details and assembling its components into a constellation that deliberately lacks a unified surface. A prominent feature of the original ceiling is the repeating pattern of 61-by-61-centimeter mechanically pressed tinplate tiles, a common material in mass-produced American ceilings since the late nineteenth century. The armature and structural element of Boyd's work is a steel grid suspended from the gallery's ceiling. While suggesting strength and permanence, its lower sections appear fragile, almost lacerated or ravaged, held by ropes that imply a temporary stability and the palpable possibility of slippage or complete collapse. Another featured artwork is an _Untitled_ polymer photogravure print, derived from a photograph the artist took of a chicken egg resting on her lap. Boyd's broader artistic practice spans sculpture, photography, writing, and video, frequently characterized by the strategic display of absence through inversions, elisions, and removals.

Visitor information and ticketing details are available via a dedicated link, directing to an external ticketing platform. The exhibition runs from November 18, 2022, to February 5, 2023, and the venue is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM. Specific ticketing policies are not detailed on this page beyond the link to purchase tickets.