Melinda Wyatt Gallery, 

Venice, Los Angeles,

October 1982 - January 1983

 

Panza Collection, gift to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1992

 

12 X 27 ft. (3.6 x 8.2 m)

Concrete blocks, mortar, wood and natural light

 

Plum Blossom Domain, This Side And Beyond was an environmental installation created for the space/site of Melinda Wyatt Gallery. It consisted of a wall built of mortared concrete blocks, about 30 cm lower than the ceiling, and set at approximately one third's distance from the back. Behind the wall there were two skylights which flooded space with light. The light coming through the ceiling was “just like a beautiful vitamin D shower” - recalls the artist. In the center of the wall, above most viewers' line of vision Vogel cut out an aperture in the form of a window, which overlooked a neutral white space full of light.

 

Directly in front of the wall Vogel placed a strange, exquisite piece of wood rubbed with pigment in the color of dark blood. The wooden object was of the exact window shape - it would fill in the hole and complete the surface of the wall, covering the light. The window in the wall was apparent, it did not open to the outside space. The punched hole revealed only a blank white wall further away. However, its boundaries were not visible in the frame of this window, which made its plane scattered with light seem unlimited.

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Suzanne Muchnic started her review of the show with words: “Susan Kaiser Vogel has built the wall. Not for the first time…”. Plum Blossom Domain, This Side And Beyond was another wall constructed by the artist, but this one was a special one as it attracted the attention of famous collectors Giovanna and Giuseppe Panzas. They were charmed by this installation and acquired the project. However it has never been recreated. In 1992 Panza passed/gifted the design to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

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In the book Memories of a Collector Giuseppe emphasized that “It was a very evocative environment. I bought some projects to be constructed from various materials [...] These were very beautiful projects” and he adds later “unfortunately I have not had the possibility of constructing any of them yet, and I feel guilty about this [...] it would be easiest not to discuss Kaiser Vogel’s works in this book and forget she ever existed as an artist - which is actually what risks happening - but I do not want to and cannot allow it to happen [...] As I have the projects and rights to recreating them, I just hope there might be a future occasion. Perhaps I might come across an enlightened museum curator who appreciates the beauty of these works; this might not happen either today or tomorrow but perhaps in a hundred years when there will be renewed interest in this art. Never lose hope.”