When caravans become High Art
This contemporary art installation is the work of Michel de Broin and is entitled 'Solitude'
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Monday, 07, Sep 2009 02:30
Contemporary art: it's a subject that can instantly polarise. Public attitudes vary from amusement to outright contempt when faced with the abstract or the bizarre. And some artists feel that even skepticism or rejection is a worthy response when faced with today's art.
We at Caravan Times are quite taken with the work of one star of the scene, Michel de Broin. Fond of placing objects out of their usual context in order to "skilfully make visible the behaviours of materials" he has used caravans on a number of occasions in his work.
His finest example is Solitude (pictured above) which saw the artist suspend a caravan from a crane above the centre of traffic in 2002. The work is designed to indicate the need for 'retreat' in placing an object of comfort away from a busy area.
The experiments with caravans do not end there however, with perhaps the most eye-popping of all being Hole. In this work de Broin created a passageway in the back of a trailer where 'one can crawl inside' with ease. The artist situated the caravan in the middle of the downtown thoroughfare of a red light district, and left it open for passers-by to enter.
In a 2007 interview de Broin dismissed the idea that his works should have a purpose to them. "Beauty is a difficult thing. People enjoy what they understand. The task is to share which I don't intend. The difficulty is to create a solitary instant of beauty and to communicate it."
With an emphasis on the playful in art Caravan Times is fast becoming a curious fan of the Montreal-born artist. Nothing to do with his love of caravans, of course.