Architectural Apology

'My Mistake', Oscar Tuazon, 4th June - 15th August, 2010, ICA

There is little that is apologetic in the physical strength and form of Oscar Tuazon's recent installation at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (4th June - 15th August, 2010), London.  Within the ICA's online promotional text, the exhibition is categorisied as 'radical' - a difficult, almost impossible, achievement within the contemporary fine art world.  Encouragement for 'radical' experimentation rings more true with the outdated language used within art education, specifically the Foundation Diploma Studies assessment criteria.  The 'radical' nature of this work is interpreted, perhaps, due to the pervasive quality of the installation that interrupts the communal corridors and open plan offices.  However, it is certain that all inhabitants will swiftly adjust their daily movements and routes as one would after any internal reconstruction.

This grand architectural obstruction, or architecture within the existing ICA structure - did, however, entirely satisfy what the ICA website suggests of its imposing sense of strength and structural form.  Referencing the foundations and processes of architectural spaces and the history of construction, the large installation appears stereotypically masculine in the materials and finishes. 

Tuazon leaves the audience few clues for the misdemeanour that he feels he must confess. The self depreciating title, 'My Mistake', is in strong contradiction with the satisfyingly solid and physically daring quality of the work.  I have read elsewhere that the artist enjoys exploring paradoxes within his practice, although in this instance he is relying wholly upon the suggestive poetic narrative from the title.