Neutral Viewing Area #1 and Neutral Viewing Area #2 (2010)

I created Neutral Viewing Area #1 and Neutral Viewing Area #2 for What is the Where?, a group show organized by Recession Art. The pieces are intended to poke some fun at the ritual of viewing art in a gallery setting. There's no such thing as a neutral environment, no such thing as unbiased poll, no such thing as a controlled experiment. Everything we do and make is imbued with a structure and a convention of some kind. If these sculptures were people, they would be crotchety control freaks, grumbling in the corner of the exhibition and clutching a bottle of antibacterial hand gel. They can only present their ideas in an enclosed, sterile viewing environment of their own making.