chi Sarah Adams
ey wassap. :DD
...you fool. o.O
HIM
Maurizio Cattelan
resin sculpture with suit, human hair, freakiness.
so, I'm wandering around the Museum of Contemporary Art, get up the the top floor... well, I was thirsty so I got a drink in that well-hidden secret of a drinking fountain room thing on the far side of the staircase. refreshed, I started walking down the white, pristine hallways/unused gallery spaces, thinking about "new" and "growth", about "possibility". what pieces might turn up here in the future? and why am I still wandering through here? there doesn't seem to be anything here.
finally, I got to the last room, where a crowd of people gathered around something on the wall. closing in, there seemed also to be some guy kinda kneeling down in the middle of the... wait, that's not a real guy. is it?
I turned to the crowd, who were reading the description on the wall. "don't read it yet!" they said. "look at it first!" they said. I heeded.
now from behind, this figure (which immediately reminded me of that creepy huge baby on the first floor) had the proportions of a child, maybe about 12 or so years of age. he was dressed formally in an ashen suit and looked quite humble in his kneeling pose in the middle of the floor. his back is turned away from the doorway, causing you to take in only this view behind the figure at first. most people tend to see this and read the description right away, which ruins the surprize. being told specifically -not- to go and read the description after a first glance, I circled the figure.
stark contrast.
the feelings of innocence and humbleness were at once swept away once my focus was set onto the face of the figure. upon the body of a child, the face of Hitler was skillfully placed.
as I absorbed this, the original feelings I had for the piece from behind crept back into place. his hands were wrenched together, his face drawn up in fear and uncertainty. he was kneeling, he was below you, he was submitting to something "higher" than himself. since I am not religious, I took this image as symbolism to Hitler himself and drew a connection to the child's body. perhaps it was a statement about Hitler's own inner fears, his childish nature and notions of childish fears. maybe it was about humanising the man, asserting that every person, even the most vile, has his insecurities and some amount of innocence. or maybe it was relaying that there can be an inner demon in all of us, that even within the veil of innocence, there is hiding a hellhound.
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