Alchemical Procedures: An Interview with Tunga by David Ebony Tunga, One Three II, 2014, iron, steel, rubber, plaster, linen, and leather, 59 by 39 3/8 by 82 5/8 inches. Š 2014, Tunga; courtesy the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York.
Brazilian artist Tunga has, in recent years, developed an elaborate, idiosyncratic cosmology. Grounded in literary sources such as Poe and MallarmĂŠ, his work reflects the artist's psychoanalytic research and features an imaginative interpretation of esoteric sciences, especially alchemy. Encompassing a wide array of materials, forms and processes, often with a performative component, his complex sculptures and installations appear to result from some arcane ritual activity. Not quite an artist-shaman in the mold of Joseph Beuys, the Rio de Janeiro-based artist, 61, is less didactic and more lyrical in his approach. "From 'La Voie Humide,'" a show of his most recent sculptures and drawings now on view at New York gallery Luhring Augustine (through May 31), includes nine multipart sculptures, which are more like compact installations. In each work, a steel tripod-shaped armature averaging 7 feet tall holds various organic shapes in bronze and plaster that