Titled after the book by Klaus Theweleit, "Male Fantasies" is amassed through the interplay between dynamic aluminum armature, dramatic, hand-carved wood tear drop spears, and surprising elements like aluminum lipsticks and cascading bead chain, plugged and draped with rubber stoppers and gaskets peppering the form. There is a logic of piercing, slotting, plugging—undeniably libidinal. The rhythmic network of welded aluminum pipe creates an enclosed corporeal system, cascading downwards toward a jagged plasma cut array reminiscent of a claw foot, comb, or combine harvester. The body of Rieger’s sculpture is laid bare, skeletal. It is as if he polished and adorned a relic of industry,
transmuting it into a strange object of power and agency. Having grown up in Pittsburgh, the son of a coal miner, Rieger is no stranger to the ravages of the industrial and the decay of infrastructure. Despite the machinic element of the works, Rieger’s hand is palpable throughout. Purple pigment mixed with shellac creates an iridescent,
tactile sheen on the carved wood spears that taper to dramatically sharpened tips.
There is a heft and brutal urgency to Rieger’s fabrication that surprisingly exudes a sense of fragility and play.