Lorenz Quinn, Support, 2017 Venice Biennale

This work by Lorenzo Quinn was made for the 2017 Venice Biennale. It is titled ‘Support’ and was made to highlight climate change, as well as the specific effect of the rising water level in the city of Venice. For me, the sheer scale of the piece is what really makes it have such an impact. If the sculpture were any smaller the hands could easily get visually lost amongst the boats, posts and other things near the water/building. I think that the only way these could maintain their impact on a smaller scale is if they were moved to a completely different location. Having said that, they are a site-specific piece of art work and so to translate the same meaning in a different place would be a great challenge. I think that the current scale of the hands let your imagination envisage them belonging to a person who is only just big/strong enough to try to hold up the building and stop it sinking further into the water. On a practical level, reducing the scale of these hands wouldn’t be difficult, and you wouldn’t have to remove much detail in them, if any. If the sculpture was going to be scaled down, one would have to recreate the whole scene, including real water and the boats in order for the piece to carry the same message. You could, for example, create a scale model for showing in a gallery, which might still get over the same message. The rest of the scene would be the challenge.

Colossal. (2017). Support: Monumental Hands Rise from the Water in Venice to Highlight Climate Change. [online] Available at: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/05/support-hands-sculpture-venice/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].