Nieves» standing sculptures tapped into other defining characteristics
of many
of the sculptural works included in Biennial: the figure or perhaps more accurately the fantastical figure, whether explicit or implicit, that also appeared, for example, in the floating, disquieting bodies
of Ajay's Kurian's Childermass (2017) installed in the main stairwell
of the Museum; the engagement with the everyday, as seen in Kaari Upson's dysmorphic, visceral transformations
of furniture; and the fastidiousness
of making, also visible in Samara Golden's The Meat Grinder's Iron Clothes (2017), which
involved a lot
of tedious labor, in this case the handmade, miniature
pieces of furniture, treadmills, and medical
equipment filling up the
various vignettes comprising the
piece.