Benchmarks, 1977

Unger’s sculpture is made of iron, a material typically associated with industrial manufacture and material power. By contrast, her forms suggest sensuousness and intimacy: pairs of interlocked fragments that fit together like crossed legs or are nestled like lovers. Though heavy and rusted, they call to mind the twisted stems of a vine or the sense of being emotionally entwined with another person. So, too, the corresponding drawings reveal a mathematical orientation while also being suffused with tenderness. Unger’s exploration of the tension and interplay between seeming opposites, such as hard and soft or industrial and natural, is representative of the tendency of 1970s art known as Post-minimalism.