You can go through life giving your utmost, playing by the rules and sacrificing a whole lot for others, but still end up on the losing end. What might be the remedy for that? Hardening your heart, growing selfish, or rather wearing your scars proudly for the next battle? Those thoughts and questions came to me as I stood in front of Alina Tenser’s steel sculptures, prefaced by a video work tellingly titled “Walking in Circles With Sharp Corners” (2023). Tenser has an uncommon ability to imbue cold, hard metal surfaces with complex human emotion. It’s all in there: pain and play, love and loss, death and rebirth. All together, the works emote a strong need to let go and move on, knowing that some things will always stay bent out of shape. —HB
Alina Tenser in "8 Art Shows to See in New York This March"
Hakim Bishara, Hyperallergic, March 1, 2024
