I loved Eva Rothschild’s video piece in her exhibition in the Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin. ‘Boys and Sculpture’ is a video from 2012 funded by the Arts Council England through the Childrens Art Commission of in the education department of the Whitechapel gallery.
It is a great psychological experiment. She lets 11 boys aged between 6 and 12 loose in a large gallery room full of her sculptures with no supervision for between 30-60 mins. At first the boys approach the work with great respect and study it from multiple angles and compare and contrast and count and share understanding verbally.
However, with time they begin to interact with the work; first to touch, then to test by pushing further and sticking their head through crevasses and holes. This play and interaction quite quickly results in the total destruction of all the sculptures in the room. All that is left is the play through swords with sticks and football with the styrofoam spherical parts of another sculpture.
It’s a total ‘Lord of the Flies’ revelation
paraic mc quaid 