SF/Arts Curator Insight

The title of King's latest show conjures a solitary character spending time alone imagining the other lives they might have led. Anchored by three body-related sculptures and a handful of paintings, the show is sparse, taking on the contemplative quality of quarantine. The center is occupied by “Heart of Glass,” a collection of clear, unlabeled containers that feels like a record of consumption, transfiguring detritus into an expression of being. “Tree Without Roots” is a simple knotted cloth sculpture. Made of discarded clothing, it reminded me of Gee’s Bend quilts, the transformation of a useful but not yet used up object from one purpose —protection — to another — commemoration. “(Dis)Organized Bodies” is two stacks of plywood cubes filled with recycled cardboard, and a collection of books — spines hidden — that I interpreted as read in solitude. The sculpture has the look of an abstract sentinel staring out the gallery’s front window at life passing by.