When I first talked about Mr. Otterness’ work a couple weeks ago, I was focused on his public installation work in the NYC subway. Today, I want to talk about some of his singular public art installations that convey some heavies narratives.
As a first generation immigrant living in the US that grew up travelling from country to country, there are certain parts of my life that fall under some stereotyping in the West. Since I am white presenting, most strangers tend to speak pretty freely around me about topics related to race and immigration. And fuck, is it telling how misinformed, uneducated, and generationally engrained negative views of foreigners are here in the US, and really everywhere on this planet.
I love how approachable Tom’s work is. It makes it possible to draw anybody in after a first glance, and then be confronted with the context of the work being observed. Instead of shock value, or some sort of trendy visual, his work has a friendly and light hearted aesthetic to it. Which in the craziest way, is a complete juxtaposition of the material he is working in; bronze is incredibly rigid and heavy.
Tom’s take of “…looking outward, and looking inward…” really resonates. What does it mean to belong to a certain ethnic identity, while learning to become part of another one? To what level do we truly integrate? Does it matter? So many people play it safe and keep a lot of their cultural views to themselves out of fear of being judged by others, or feeling like outsiders. All immigrants really want is a better life, and are consistently met with experiences that challenge them on whether they deserve it or not.
My personal take is that borders are bullshit. Financial systems and political power structures keep these in place, and prevent humanity from really flourishing. It’s in human nature to stay violent, thought it’s also subsequently in our nature to find hope, and dream of a better life. Really we’re all just sabotaging ourselves as a society, while trying to survive. Every single one of us is driving around a fragile bag of meat and bones with no clear understanding of how we are piloting the mechanics as a ghost-like non-corporeal entity. Why the fuck are we so determined to segregate each other based on appearance or philosophical disagreements?
This is why I love public, physical installation art. It is timeless, it doesn’t depend on electricity to be displayed, and it is very tactile. Even looking at a photo of this kind of work, you get a notion of its physical immutability. If you want to check out the complexity of installing such a work, you can check out Lee Matz’s article about it by clicking here. What I love the most about this is that once the piece has been created by the artist themselves, there is then an entire process of putting it on display that ensues, which in and of itself adds some weight to the installation. Pun intended.
Next time I talk about Tom’s work, I will likely get into some of his exhibitions, which come with a very wide variety of narratives and conceptual statements. Meanwhile, I encourage you to share your thoughts about this kind of work, and let me know if there are any artists you would like me to explore, or even if you would like to collaborate over an article with!
My next episode of Transmissions from the Void will feature the lovely Morgan Shay, and that’s dropping in 2 days from now. Reminder that you can always gift a subscription to folks if you like what I’ve been doing there.