Brett- Contemporary Art

Brett Jackson
9/29/07
Art 297

Contemporary Art
Cornelia Parker has a work in the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston called “Hanging Fire (suspected arson)”. It’s a group of hanging pieces of charcoal, with smaller ones more towards the top and larger pieces settled near the center of the bottom. It’s like there is a fire, but no flames can be seen. The invisible heat pushing the light pieces up and the group of larger charcoal bits stick to the bottom as fuel for the missing blaze. Parker said that she liked using charcoal because it has a second life to it. It’s a leftover from a fire, but you can still use it as fuel, like a second life after being used up.
The charcoal chunks she used were from a burnt building in a suspected arson case, so it is a found object art piece. She stole the bits from the scene of the supposed crime. It’s a testament to making something out of a violent act like the arson of the woodshop in London.
It must have been a pain to re-suspend the whole thing in the same order when they moved it to the new ICA.
I like that it is a large work. Being twelve feet tall really makes you take notice. And when I came around the corner it is a surprise. I didn’t really like most of the other pieces, mostly because I guess I don’t really appreciate the “modern” more symbolic artworks, but this piece of Ms. Parker’s stood out to me. Even though it didn’t apply to the current discussion in class, I figured I should write about what I liked the most. I also liked the steel rabbit because I really thought it was one of those Mylar balloons and the cube of pins simply because I didn’t think that the pins would stay in formation when the box frame was taken away if there was nothing used to secure them. I liked the sort of horseshoe crab shaped sculpture that was built right into the showroom wall.