Terence Koh

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Nothingtoodoo, 2011, performance at Mark Boon Gallery, New York

text and photo by JULIANA BALESTIN

 

Terence Koh transformed Mary Boone’s gallery into a space of ceremony and cleansing. Koh began by covering the gallery’s entrance with a long white sheet and installing in its interior a 45-ton rock salt mound. For all five weeks of the exhibition Koh acted out a silent private ritual, alternating between circling the salt pile on his knees and lying prostrate on it, while never once acknowledging the presence of visitors. Plus, nothing from the show was for sale. Like Marina Abramovic’s best works, Koh’s nothingtoodoo produced a spectacular and refreshing change of pace for the art world.