Daniel Ruanova’s sculpture “DEFEND” is a shiny crystalline structure welded together inside a small gallery. It barely fits in there; you have to duck to get around it, and the wall is scratched where the metal scraped white paint.
The work is supposed to be about violence, “a monstrous, multi-spiked barricade…bomb frozen in mid-detonation,” especially in relationship to the American/Mexican border. I found it more comic book, a phallic explosion rigged by some crazy frat boy in the middle of the night in a professor’s office. Cool and silly, not scary. I don’t think it would read as well in a large space, it needs confinement.
2 comments:
I think it was screwed together and not welded, making it easier to take apart and remove from the gallery. I like it in the confined space but I think it would still have that comic book explosion look about it in an open space. The read would be a little different though.
Yes, you're right, screwed.
In the confined space we're forced to get very close to it, while in an outdoor setting or bigger space I doubt I'd have approached it. Too male... :)
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