Settings: Artist Research- Ilya Kabakov

Ilya Kabakov
Two Walls of Fear

Photo sourced from D. James D

Ilya Kabakov is an artist who has really explored ideas about what constitutes an artwork and how the environment that it is presented in affects the way that it is viewed.

She argues that ' any installation is incredibly, impossibly sensitive to the place where it is constructed' (millennium 80). This idea is explored in her work Two Walls of Fear. The installation is built onto the former site of the Berlin Wall and consists of two parallel wooden structures representing the Eastern and Western Walls. These walls housed rubbish that the artist had found in the prewar heart of berlin (now deserted). The rubbish, suspended from the walls using wire, are presented to the viewer as artworks, accompanied by white art labels containing commentary in both German and English.

I think this work is interesting because I found that my interpretations were constantly changing and evolving. I found myself switching between feeling as though the artist wanted to glorify the rubbish, and that the recreation of the wall in a temporary material such as wood was exploring the temporary nature of conflict and its uselessness to the progression of society. I equated the rubbish with the wall and saw them as one entity; ultimately deciding that the installation, to me, meant that the Berlin Wall was the rubbish of society.

The work is powerful in a number of ways. Kabakov is presenting to the viewer the idea that the site of the work makes the work. This piece would not have had quite the same message if it was installed within a gallery. The viewer gets a sense of history and ideology by being within the site and viewing the work. A connection is formed between the work and the site, one that is almost concreted and thus not be able to be replicated within another space.

The presentation of the work within the space is very effective. I like the way that the rubbish has been hung from the wires rather than being presented on plinths or in frames. The wires give me a sense of movement, as if the pieces of rubbish are flying around. I feel as though viewing the work in person would be very emotional; to be physically within the wall structures and surrounded by the pieces of rubbish would feel encompassing and inhibiting. The commentary on the art labels might make the viewer feel uncomfortable within the space.

If I was making this space I would have liked to have carved the commentary into the wooden walls. This would have referenced the messages that were graffitied onto the Berlin Wall while it was standing. I can, however, understand why the commentary was written on art labels; the labels challenged the idea that an object can be considered an artwork based on its presentation.