The idea of representing or re-creating real life in the form of art seems to be coming up a bit in contemporary art lately. For example, Kenny Pittock's ceramic objects immitating things like chip packets, chocolate bars, and the desk piece he had at ACCA earlier in the year. Connor's 'Wallworks' however, akes this even further by attempting to recreate entire sections of walls from around MUMA. It's extremely impressive and I think will be looked back on as quite an important step in that 'everyday' kind of field of contemporary thinking, if you will. As well as re-creating the walls, the re-presentation (literally RE presenting) the artworks from around MUMA campuses is clever too. It poses questions around how far you can go in terms of using other people's works in your own artwork, and what is considered art! I think once an artwork makes you think of the question 'is this art?' it can either go two ways - the viewers will either think 'what the hell, this is bulshit, this isn't art, pfffft'... OR they'll day 'oh my god this is BRILLIANT HOW CLEVER WOW'. Which makes the artworks instantly controversial and provocative. It's so subversive. I love the freedom of art in that respect. Hearing about Fiona's journey in talking to the people who usually work around the real wall sections, and how much the project brought people who maybe don't usually think about art together made it even more impressive and inspiring!
Personally, I really like this work because of how many different ways you can look at it. I hope she gets the credit she deserves for it.
PS - (Updated section:) Recently I saw the 'Don't Kurt Cobain' closing show at Slopes, and there was a work there where the artist had pulled out a section of her old bedroom wall with a Nirvana poster on it, and then put it under glass and in a frame. I wonder whether this work could have been inspired by Fiona Connor's work?
