Watching: Alfonso Ossorio

Overview

Paying homage to the blazingly bizarre, boldly sincere life of Alfonso Ossorio (1916–1990), this docushort by Marianne Trench attempts a reflection on his life's work—most notably the 80-acre Long Island estate Ossorio left behind. It is an environment thoroughly extruded with pattern & motif, teeming with sculpture, topiary, bonsai, & works all but defying categorization. Across all its concomitant iterations, Ossorio's multidisciplinary stewardship of the land remains as four decades of evidence testifying to his aesthetic, ecological, & spiritual efforts. Ineffably beautiful & understandably brutal, archetypal powers unfold, revealing the fullness & emptiness of our own reflection—equal parts romantic & stark—leaving us to question how to continue or explain what has been started.