Sinking and Burning is the penultimate in a series of thirteen large case pieces with inset reverse glass paintings, a centuries old technique seen in earlier works nearby. Dreamlike, the cabinet is filled with visualized noise, humming with life despite the rather dire title drawn from the Italianate composite towers at the bottom of the composition. As one tower subsides into azure waters, the other’s foundation is ablaze. The process of reverse glass painting dates back to 13th-century Italy, but Richard Lee’s recondite mixture of motifs, culled across centuries and cultures, is distilled into a unique dream world populated by all manner of mythological, hieratical, and chimerical beings. The imagery of his curious cabinet offers a world that leaves much to the contemporary viewer’s own imagination.