Quarry: Lucy Gunning at Greene Naftali Gallery
By Danielle Augusta Cannon
Picasso once said, "every act of creation is first an act of destruction." Perhaps Lucy Gunning was thinking along these lines when she created Quarry, an installation recently on display at the Greene Naftali Gallery. The viewer enters a room behind a hanging curtain, to see what New York Magazine described as "stadium seating" (August 2, 2004) opposite a large, dual sided video screen. The room is kept bare and dark purposefully, serving as a spatial frame for the on-screen visuals. "On one side of the double-sided projection, Gunning projects Blast. Here, footage of an exploding rock quarry loops endlessly, documenting the daily blasting of vast areas of the earth" (Greene Naftali Inc.). The concept of repetition, perhaps intended to emphasize the confines of monotony, evokes the life cycle itself. Creation. Existence. Destruction. Repeat.
One may argue that beneath the surface of this video presentation lies a sharp commentary on modern culture. Is the seemingly tranquil visual before the explosion a metaphor for the suffocated emotions that bubble just one degree under a person’s persona? Does the explosion mirror humanity’s desire to break free from consumerism, pop-psychology, the corrosive nature of repetition, or any of man’s stuffed-away thoughts that confront him in his dreams? Is Gunning using the explosion as a visual wake-up call to the viewer, intending to break through the conscious self, forcing one to confront the reality of their existence? Is she questioning society and the individual in a way reminiscent of the Chuck Palahniuk’s protagonist in Fight Club: Are we "anywhere near hitting bottom?" Fight Club, features an excerpt which perhaps parallels the sentiment behind Gunning’s work: "You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. Maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves." Lucy Gunning’s Quarry challenges the viewer to ponder creation, destruction, themselves, as well as what might "have to," or inevitably will be broken.
