Lucy Orta

Nexus Architecture x 50 Intervention Köln by Lucy Orta, 2001 

"Television, mass-communication technology, the information age, have all combined to revolutionize the social arena and distort our perception of our immediate surroundings. From the comfort of the remote control, to the security of the Living Room, we stand witness to the gradual erosion of the individual and our ability to function effectively as a collective unit. The phantom of difference transcends the spectre of the social order just as the notion of private space has become subsumed within the public arena… In a social environment such as this, founded on a set of inherent, dare we say schizophrenic contradictions; the work of Lucy Orta holds a special resonance. Intimately tied to the notion of Collective Action, her artistic endeavours create a symbolic space of interaction between the individual and his immediate neighbour. For George Simmel, the innate pressures of the urban environment that Lucy so eloquently confronts in her work, lead ultimately to a loss of self. Due to the myriads of differentiated interests and inter-relationships contained within the modern city the individual becomes entwined within the mass of humanity. Lost within a surfeit of what he describes as a many membered organism. In contrast, Lucy’s umbilical structures create an organism of a different type; a symbolic organism that proffers itself as a direct physical and visual intervention. Her constructions, with their many detachable appendages or Social Links unite different individuals into a self-sufficient entity that signals the power of a collective body over the isolation of a single soul. Nexus Architecture forges new inter-relationships and challenges notions of personal and cultural identity, the environment and the way we communicate and interact with each other." Mark Sanders

Images from : http://www.studio-orta.com/