Hangar
Kunstnernes Hus, Århus, Denmark. september 1994
Some 900 cattle bones attached to metal wires suspended from the ceiling of the exhibition room form the external
contour of an aeroplane.
The aeroplane is modelled on the Douglas DC-3, which since the 1930s has been used as a passenger and cargo carrier all over the world,
for both civilian but particularly millitary purposes - one of the most succesful aeroplanes in aviation history, the DC-3 is still in
service today. The DC-3 is an archetype, the embodiment of virtually classic aviation design, and an aeroplane familiar from innumerable
documentary and feature films.
In the installation, the bone formation of the DC-3 is dimensioned so that from wing tip to wing tip and from nose to tail it fills most
of the room. It hovers about a metre above the floor locked between the room's vertical wooden columns.
The point of suspension of every single bone corresponds to a particular point in the space on the surface of a DC-3. The suspension thus
moves in the correct aerodynamic curves, tracing the contour of the wings and other features. However, each individual bone was randomly
selected with regard to size and shape, and the orientation of the bones in space is likewise arbitrary.
The fact that the bone DC-3 is to some extend transparent, the spectator being able to see through the fuselage to the bones on the opposite
side, means that the spatial fluidity of the aircraft is dependent upon where in the room one stands. Whichever angle they are viewed from,
some parts of the suspension wil have the appearance of a chaotic, flat curtain of bones, while at the same time other parts are perceived as
a well-ordered, three-dimensional definition of an aeroplane. Moving around the installation, the focus continuously changes between the two,
and it is impossible from any single position in the room to form a 3D picture of the complete aeroplane.
Positioned on the floor under the right-hand wing of the aircraft are three banks of black compressed-air cylinders. There are 12 cylinders in
all, each containing around 10,000 litres of compressed air. During the course of the exhibition, each cylinder in turn is made to release a
small but constant flow of air by means of an adjustable valve.The escaping air is audible throughout the exhibition room as a low, high-frequency
whistling sound which is easily recognised as originating from the cylinders. As the cylinders carry no label or other form of inscription,
visitors cannot immediately identify the nature of the escaping gas unless they are familiar with the special colour code used on cylinders
of this type. The total content of the cylinders, around 120,000 litres, corresponds to the three-week duration of the exhibition.
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