“Things Are Not What They Seem” at The Byrne Gallery

Written by Kaitlin Hill
Artwork by J-P Müller

Step into The Byrne Gallery in Middleburg, VA, and be transported to a different world — or rather, another dimension, when viewing artist J-P Müller’s latest installment. The multidimensional sculptures, etched metalworks, and an otherworldly acrylic prism within a prism where colors change and elements disappear depending on vantage point, push the limits of artistic expression and may even have viewers questioning reality.

“I’m very curious about interdimensionality,” shares Müller as he moves through his Middleburg exhibit. “You’re not a viewer; you’re a participant. I am dissecting something and presenting it back to you in a form that is unfamiliar to you.”

Though, more than a presentation to an audience, for Müller his collection represents a journey. “It’s exploration for me. I’m on a journey. Sometimes it comes to me and it drives me, and sometimes I am just curious.”

Take Müller’s piece “Pipe Dream,” a dazzling 12-by-24-inch bronze sheet of etched pipes wildly winding their way around each other and simultaneously jumping off the backing when the light hits it just right. Müller says, “I didn’t enter it with that thought, but once I hit the technique, I just went with it.” He continues, “It’s a combination of me exploring, then all of a sudden I am drawn into something and I end up somewhere.” The end result is somehow simple and complex, evoking everything from urban plumbing to the madness of Medusa.

Like his art, Müller isn’t so straightforward. “It’s easy to say I am a metal artist, but it’s hard to pin down what I really am,” he says. When taken as a whole, it is difficult to identify one source of inspiration behind the collection, too.

In his piece “The Next Day,” a 24-by-24-inch bronze sheet, music is the seemingly obvious inspiration, as bulldogs take the place of The Beatles in a reimagined version of the famous “Abbey Road” album cover. But Müller takes it a dimension further. “It came to me from a song by the band Three Dog Night,” he shares. “The verse of the song is, ‘I’ve never been to England, but I kind of like The Beatles.’ I used bronze and let it tea stain a little bit. I’m a bulldog owner, so it just seemed apropos to me.”

“The Next Day” is the second piece of a collection inspired by the song. The first, which is titled “The Scene,” depicts what might seem like a traditional bullfight, but when viewed a little closer, you’ll notice the matador is battling a woman, and “look at who is being entertained,” Müller prods. He’s replaced what would normally be a human audience with animals. “That’s where I flipped it.” The third in this installment is forthcoming.

Moving from two-dimensional to three-, four-, or five-dimensional, Müller’s work offers even more opportunities for audience participation. To get the full effect, viewers must move around his pieces, view them from below and above, and may even benefit from a morning visit and an evening check-in to see how the changing light unveils an entirely different piece on the same plinth.

His “Interdimensional Vessel,” made of steel tubes welded into 29 ellipsoids with interiors painted in a custom deep blue, could represent anything — a chalice, a waterspout, the curves of a woman’s body, or none of the above.

And “Phase Shift,” which comprises 88 layers of aluminum that are textured and painted, portray everything from the profile of a man, woman, or creature to the waves of the ocean, a solid, liquid, or somehow dissolved mystery material depending on the angle. Susan Byrne offers, “It looks like the bust of JFK from the Kennedy Center.”

To try to describe Müller’s work any further would be a disservice to the exhibit which really must be viewed in-person. And, under photos of his art, Müller includes the disclaimer, “Pictures cannot do this piece justice in its presence and movement.”

Each viewer will certainly experience each piece in their own unique way, influenced by any number of factors — the light, their height, their mood, their memories, their movements. But Müller has a common goal for each piece and each person who experiences his art.

“I have a hope for all my pieces. The effect is: now we have made a cerebral connection ethereally, and that to me has no end of coolness.” He continues, “What I am striving for is that connection.” ML

The exhibit is on display through November 3. For more information, visit thebyrnegallery.com.