The Brooklyn Rail

Nathalia Edenmont’s Out of Body, a starkly simple but moving exhibition of egg-shaped sculptures and photographs, makes great use of a primal visual form. The egg is an ur-form in the art of both ancient and contemporary cultures, and it is not hard to see how it signals, quite literally, the birth of creatures such as birds and snakes and, millions of years ago, dinosaurs. So our present experience of the egg as a basic ovoid form dates way back, to the beginnings of the world as we know it.

In Edenmont's show the form is made even more engaging by introducing layers that bring out the effect of a broken egg. Of course usually the eggshell is smooth, but in more than a few of the works on show, the cracks open to a depth of a few millimeters, a depth substantial enough to be visually forceful. In some cases we find several layers of cracked shell, with the jagged pieces creating a strong local interest in addition to the shape's gestalt as a whole.

Earlier works by Edenmont were different. One previous show, called Beauty and Pain, presented photographs of female figures swathed in large volumetric dresses or tunics made from flowers, fruit, and other natural materials. In Out of Body the emphasis is on the cracks and edges resulting from breaks and flaws and shallow hollows in each individual work. The camera images present goose eggs the artist has cracked and manipulated into sculptural forms.

In Out of the Nest (2024) all we see is an uncracked exterior—the egg presents a unity of aesthetic form and artistic function. The shape is basic, and for many of us, a central part of our culinary habits. Its novelty presents to us a well-recognized form, something we know represents the thinnest of barriers. Suddenly the image's surface-level reference to food transforms into a far-reaching symbolism.

In the remarkable cracked egg titled Out of a Fertile Summer Sun (Vincenzo) (2024) we look at a linear break on one side that widens as it moves downward toward the middle. As it widens, the crack deepens a bit, forming a shallow space below. The depth of the broken surface is striking; it seems as if it were a miracle that the gestalt holds together at all. The cracks thus complicate the sculpture's smooth surface.

The last piece to be mentioned is a photograph, inside out, an egg whose breaks appear to be on the verge of fully penetrating the eggshell. They form an indented facade, but of the same hue: a rusted red over black. The cracks look like they are the lines of an indented circle fitting into a layer just beneath the outside layer of the egg. The use of one color to form a bit of a pattern over another makes the exterior of this work particularly attractive, and the result is something that looks nearly Neolithic, a relic from the past.

Edenmont’s works are beautiful to look at and, at the same time, hold a mythic sway that connects with our deepest sense of time. We take this time metaphorically, though, now that we are living in times when mythology has become a study of literary history rather than a living theme. But Edenmont's works appear to be so ancient, and are so physical in their impact, that they speak for themselves without help.