ART REVIEW: " NOMENCLATURE"
Galleries by Nancy Stapen
The Boston Globe
12/16/1993
Ex-soldier captures the terrors of war in sculpture.
At once wrenching, frightening and funny, Ken Hruby's show at the Chapel Gallery is an unflinching look at the crippling effects of militarism on contemporary culture.
Unlike so much of the political work currently in vogue, Hruby's sculptures have the ring of authenticity.Born into a military family, spent 21 years as a professional soldier, with combat tours in Vietnam and Korea. Some 10 years ago Hruby's life took a 180-degree turn; he ended his soldering to pursue a career in art, and he is now teaching at the Museum School, where he received a degree in 1987. Hruby's sculpture represents a struggle to assimilate the brutality of what he now views as "another lifetime."
The show's title, "Nomenclature," alludes to the euphemisms that mask the reality of war and army life. Hruby ha provided a helpful glossary of the army slang he incorporates into the work's titles. "Short Arm Inspection Series," for example, refers to the surprise pre-dawn inspection of troops' genitalia by medical staff seeking signs of venereal disease. An air of deliberate clichˇ pervades this fork's nine well objects, which are composed of such found materials as rifle butts and rocks suspended in fishnet, a waggish satire of male organs. Despite its drollery, the work is also imbued with discomforting vulnerability.
A similar macabre humor pervades an installation of obviously phony cast latex ears impaled by pencils, which nevertheless evoke the horrific trophies used to verify Viet Cong body counts. A mass of black Army boots tipped with compasses arranged haphazardly on the floor suggests disorientation below the surface of regimentation. A series of "Boyz-Toyz," created by "Hruby Machotoyco," features actual weapons, from guns to garrotes, attractively packaged as playthings for "Ages 6 and up, as seen on TV!" The series is a strike at the commodification of military culture and the socialization of boys toward a violent ideal. As the above suggests, much of Hruby's images are, like the ethos of military life, direct hits couched in caricature. But there's enough ambiguity here to evoke terror and pathos beneath the humorous veneer.