By lillevoffsen
You might remember Jim Carrey’s “the claw” from the movie “Liar Liar” in late nineties? And if you found that claw spooky, it is certainty nothing compared to Van Houts claw.
Picture taken from: Flickr.
On the 20th of August 2019 Dagbladet’s journalist Helene H. Rossholt wrote about the bizarre hand Quasi who overlooks the square in the capital of New Zealand. Quasi is a five-meter-long hand placed on the roof of the City Gallery Wellington in New Zealand. This hand, or Quasi as it is called, is made by the artist Ronnie Van Hout, and according to the gallery’s webpage, this is some kind of a self-portrait of the artist. In other terms, the giant piece for art, which by the way weighs 400 kilos, is based on the artist scanning’s of his own body parts.
As the journalist writes, Van Hout is known for making art that can be disturbing and provocative to the audience, and Quasi is no exception.
His works have a tragicomic undertone, and Quasi is meant to be the freak, the outsider, the reject who seeks acceptance and just want to be loved. This total reject of an art piece first came to life in 2016 after a tragic earthquake that hit the city back in 2011. Quasi is as the famous Disney character Quasimodo, a delicate soul filled with love and courage. In this case the “freak”, Quasi, seems to have awaken disgust and strong reactions among some of the residents in Wellington. People are literally freaked out by the enormous hand gawking down at them.
But what is causing this disgust and strong reactions among the audience?
In the article “Art at the crossroads. The arts in society and the sociology of art” written by Victoria D. Alexander; Anne E. Bowler, you read can about how Howard Becker defined art as “a work being made and appreciated”. This sentence highlights the need to understand the links between producers of art and those who receive it. In Quasi’s case this might not be work that is appreciated among its audience. Seems to me that there is a missing link between the Van Hout and audience. But on the other hand, has the audience even dug deep enough to understand the meaning of this art piece? What is so wrong about a so called “freak” who just wants to be loved like the rest of us? Is the audience trying to assert that freaks don’t deserved to be loved? If Quasi isn’t accepted by the residents, I’m guessing that means that Van Hout shares the same faith as the giant freak.
Making sense of art and design industries 