Rust never sleeps

Do you know why I hate stupid, pretentious, "site-specific installation art"? Do you? Because reality does it so much better! 

Take this tractor thingie marooned in the parking lot of Prospect Park, where I chanced upon it while waiting to meet up again with the Fellowship of the Chainring. It would need a brooding, opaque title, like Earth/Mover IV.

The artist would have to produce a statement saying things like:

• "Earth/Mover IV continues my exploration of 'found' machines and manmade structures in decay, juxtaposed with the rebirth and growth of organisms in hostile environments. The series challenges the viewer to encounter the vigor and resilience of natural elements and to perceive the brutality and, ultimately, the fragility of instruments of mass ecological destruction."

Then the critics would have to weigh in:

"Aside from its sly and mordant social commentary—the absurd tropical vigor of the plant overwhelming the crumbling vehicle—Earth/Mover IV stands on its own for the architectonic confidence of its design and the raw physical beauty of its materials.

Most haunting, perhaps, is its evocation of absent humanity in the chained and crumbling 'cab,' where the hands of a ghost civilization seem poised to recommence laying the landscape to waste."

 
 











Take that, Richard Serra!

Comments

[Phil]

Well done, and love that reaction to the Serra.

[Marie]

Lol, I didn't have the same reaction to the Serra piece, but I do agree about the real thing. It reminds me of some of WH Auden's poetry, too. Abandoned work sites, industrialization gone weedy, etc.