Big is impact. Large installations are like buildings. It's difficult to ignore their presence; they just intrude into your physical space and force you to pay attention. You are not allowed to remain neutral and not feel anything. You just have to go WOW!
At the P.S.1 Museum in New York, an installation is being set up, so huge that it occupies the whole courtyard space. The place is very busy, full of sweaty workmen, carpenters with their tools and technicians poring over blueprints. It's just like a construction site. Watching a works-in-progress has its intrigue. How will the final piece look like? What is the artist trying to say? Are there more pieces to come? Are the parts built on site, or they pre-fabricated elsewhere? What are the materials being used? How does the artist decide on what materials to use? How long will the installation stay on site?
Across in the heart of Manhattan, in what is known as the English Channel at the Rockefeller Center, a 6-storey installation called What My Father Gave Me (appropriately named as Father's Day is round the corner) has been set up. It is assembled from one million small pieces of stainless steel toy parts, put together like Lego pieces. It is based on an old-fashioned toy that no longer exists. The artist Chris Burden has to commission a factory to manufacture the components. Although the installation is tall, it is dwarfed by the buildings at the Rockefeller Center, and because it is made of metal sticks, it does not feel solid and imposing. I kind of like it. It fits quite naturally into the environment. I suspect most of the tourists are not even aware that it is a temporary work of art that will come down after some time.
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