‘Breaking the surface’ (2002) was an external ‘installation’ set in Somerset, UK at the Bridgewater Docks in May of it’s year. Pinksky salvaged discarded objects from the water and brought them to the surface… thoughtfully lit to a soundtrack of clanging sounds from the objects themselves – the sounds coming from local residents apartments, cars and such. As Stephanie Delcroix writes, ‘Pinsky revived the artefacts to confront the audience. Reactions have been divided: some recognise objects once thrown into the water and saw only dredged refuse; others were seduced by the aesthetic of decay’.
The piece fantastically draws from the site itself – the forgotten human element of the space – and using theatrically animating devices thrusts a thought provoking ambience into the eyes, ears and minds of the audience. A sense of nostalgia, disgust, intrigue, remembrance and a reflection on the passing of time convert the space into a reflective and ultimately positive place. You are almost taken on a journey through an urban landscape which is both new and remembered.
On the other hand ‘Lost O’ (2007) which was set in Ashford, UK from July to October 2007 - was a piece which also used objects of the space it was set in – but without any form of contrasting means. The piece took together signs from the old Ashford ring-road to create a form of memorial to the lost urban space: ‘As the project progressively thins out the signage, street and traffic lights around Ashford, they will find a new home as a sculptural form. The sculpture will not be defined through construction, but through displacement’.
The way in which the signs were quite simply only displaced, for me, failed to fully relay the emotion behind the piece. Yes there was a conveyance of the ‘tragicness’ of this lost space... However, I can’t help but think that, firstly, this is the sort of place that was better forgotten, and secondly, that the ‘tragedy’ I felt was only in the overwhelming disappointment in the lack of imagination that went into the pieces execution.
Some may argue that the method reflects the place it represents - something bland, forgetful, lost. For me though - these feelings for the 'long lost ringroad' are clouded by a simple notion of ‘missed opportunity’ for the artist. The ends and means don't fully match - there's something lacking in a way that isn't connected to the connotations of meaning intended by the artist in the method he's used. It doesn't offer enough.
Maybe it's not supposed to? But to my mind unlike 'Breaking the surafce', 'Lost O' simply falls flat.
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