Aeneas Wilder's Untitled #133

September 24, 2007 12:24 PM

The destruction of Untitled #133 by Aeneas Wilder took place on Labor Day. He knocked down his latest piece at the San Francisco Exploratorium to cheers from the audience and applause. The giant wooden sphere took 10 days to make out of painstakingly stacked (never fastened) wooden planks. Is it an artistic expression of the impermanence of man? Another chapter in the ongoing discussion about the nature of art? Or just every little kid's ultimate building-blocks-meet-Godzilla fantasy?
posted by Brockstar (16 comments total)

Sand mandalas have been around for quite a long time. I'm glad everyone had a good time though, these things are worth doing and appreciating for their own sake.
posted by hermitosis at 12:29 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Nice for the performance aspect, but I prefer Andy Goldsworthy.
posted by agregoli at 12:29 PM on September 24, 2007

Is it an artistic expression of the impermanence of man? Another chapter in the ongoing discussion about the nature of art? Or just every little kid's ultimate building-blocks-meet-Godzilla fantasy?

It's like when Sanjaya said it was all an act.
posted by poppo at 12:35 PM on September 24, 2007

Well, whatever else it is I find it moderately more interesting than I find most performance art... Has he really done that 133 times? You'd think it'd get old after the first one or two.
posted by sotonohito at 12:44 PM on September 24, 2007

As a word oriented person with a historic bent I find "Ozymandias" to be a better expression of imperminance myself. But, of course, that's a matter of taste.
posted by sotonohito at 12:47 PM on September 24, 2007

I'm sure every parent has seen a kid knock down a tower of blocks more than 133 times. I wonder why the artist hasn't progressed beyond this stage of development?
posted by agregoli at 12:49 PM on September 24, 2007

What hermitosis said. Butter sculpture is the same idea, except they usually don't try to melt it, but it sure could melt. The impermanence of art is probably the major theme of tibetan buddhist art, aside from the religous iconography.

The video is blocked for me, anyone care to explain how they knocked it down without getting killed? It seems pretty big.
posted by GuyZero at 12:50 PM on September 24, 2007

I don't think it fell directly by the artist's own hand, because if you view it in the slow motion replay you can see multiple points of failure accompanied by puffs of dust in various places around 0:48 and 0:50 -- telltale signs of "squibs" being used which should indicate this was an inside demolition job. Isn't it odd that no Jews are visible in the video?
posted by brownpau at 12:50 PM on September 24, 2007 [7 favorites]

Ephemera is so passé.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:10 PM on September 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think that, for as long as a video exists depicting its construction and collapse, it cannot truly be said to have been "destroyed."
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:15 PM on September 24, 2007

Good point, B_B. It actually is a sort of a self-betrayal; his ego as an artist cannot quite accept the sacrifices he's making, at the same time that it's nourished by them.

To remain truly devoted to his intent, he should just keep using his title as an counter of how many he's done.
posted by hermitosis at 1:26 PM on September 24, 2007

The video is blocked for me, anyone care to explain how they knocked it down without getting killed? It seems pretty big.

It looks like it's about 12 feet (4 m) tall, made from 1"x2" lumber; it's not going to do more than a nasty rap on knee or something. The video is a little unclear, but it looks as though the artist or his helping kid reaches and tugs one link out.

It would be different, but the art piece would have burned nicely, I imagine.

I am reminded of these wooden art-structures on englishrussia.com
http://englishrussia.com/?p=1033#more-1033
http://englishrussia.com/?p=1349
and the lexus ad / wooden structure at a recent burning man:
http://www.dezeen.com/2007/05/01/arne-quinze-at-burning-man/
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:27 PM on September 24, 2007

The Exploratorium is the best museum ever. Man, I want to go back.
posted by grouse at 2:07 PM on September 24, 2007

While the creationist in me believes that he did in fact build this sculpture, the realist in me asks, did anyone actually build this? Since there is no remain proof, did it actually happen? Then the real, internal and existential me asks, why even build anything in the first place?
posted by subaruwrx at 4:10 PM on September 24, 2007

He should've taken it into the desert & burned it. I bet he could find a receptive audience for that.
posted by scalefree at 6:42 AM on September 25, 2007

He should've taken it into the desert & burned it. I bet he could find a receptive audience for that.

Yes, but if he does, he shouldn't take it through the airport. Repeat after me. The airport is not Burning Man. Repeat after me. The airport is not Burning Man.
posted by jonp72 at 6:58 AM on September 25, 2007