Among Donovan’s numerous works in the Aardt Collection, this cube of Toothpicks along with a conceptually-related cube of broken Glass cube has a formal purity distinct from certain of her apparently more organic forms. In this instance, the work is a thirty-four-inch cube composed entirely of toothpicks compressed into a mass that presents relatively smooth planar faces, while harboring its own intricate internal geometry. The work belongs to a line of thinking about primary geometric forms as sculptural units, as in sculptures by Tony Smith, Robert Morris and Donald Judd. But where those artists often worked with materials fabricated to precise industrial standards, Donovan achieves geometric regularity through the compression of chaotic elements. Each face of the cube, at a distance, reads as a monochromatic plane; close up it dissolves into thousands of tiny cylinders at varying orientations. The cube both confirms and frustrates Minimalist conceits, carefully ordered at inception, yet subject to the law of entropy as it gradually dissolves into a pile of toothpicks with every passing tremor.
