Roost 2008

Here we have "Roost," by Inigo Manglano-Ovalle. It’s a structure, kind of geodesic, like a Buckminster Fuller building, but made with bamboo and little red accents. There's a chicken in front of it, looking like it's about to enter. You know, the chicken is the oldest symbol of something very basic, right? And here it is, confronted with complexity, a cage that looks like some science project. That contrast, between the organic and the constructed, makes the piece. I mean, look at how the light plays through the bamboo structure, making shadows that are just as important as the physical materials. It reminds me a little of Sol LeWitt's structures, but with a quirky, animal twist. The cage is a metaphor for the artificiality of modern life, the way we try to contain nature, but nature, like that chicken, just keeps pecking away at the edges. It's funny and thought-provoking.