Nick Hough ICA Assignment

Nick Hough
September 30, 2007
ICA Assignment

I have never heard of The Institute of Contemporary Art, let alone gone and seen it, so it was a very interesting experience. First thing you notice is the way the building looks, very contemporary, sleek and clean. I also like the location of the building right on the harbor. When you walk in you see the big mural on the wall divine gas. It is contoured to the angel of the roof. I have to saw that this was my least favorite piece in the museum. There was something about the eyes that seemed disturbing to me, almost demon like, but I enjoyed the rest. There were two works that I really did enjoy.
The first art piece that really stood out to me was an untitled one by Tara Donovan. She converts every day, disposable materials into stylish sculptures, installations, and works of paper. Here untitled (Pins) is made from thousands of commonplace, silver straight pins that are formed into a perfect square cube. I find it amazing that the pines are not glued or use magnets in any way that would keep them together. Gravity is the only thing that is keeping them from falling down. That is what the most interesting aspect of the box is to me. Donovan makes this piece by pouring boxes upon boxes of pins into a four-sided mold. Once the sides are removed, the pins keep a cube shape, bound by nothing more than gravity. I think that this is amazing. The idea almost reminds me of how a bird makes a nest using only twigs that are stacked on top of each other. The cube seems to be a solid form but when you get close to it, you can see that it is anything but solid. When you think about it, a bug could come and land on it and the whole thing could fall down all that work go. I guess that is what ads to the mystery of it.
The second that I found to be truly out of the ordinarily was Hanging Fire by Cornelia Parker. Parker is a English artist who was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England. Hanging Fire consists of many numerous pieces of charcoal that are suspended in the air. The bigger parts are at the bottom and they become smaller the higher and farther away you get. I like this piece because there is always some kind of motion going on. Whether it is the way it looks or from the wind moving and making it spin. What makes it really special is that all of the wood that was used came from a wood working shop that was burned down. I like that Parker made a truly creative sculpture from something that other people used for creativity.