It is hard single out one of Jean Tinguely’s works as my personal favorite since all of them have inspired me in my own practice but Homage to New York, 1960, by the Swiss sculptor has to be at the top of the list. Not only was this piece a kinetic sculpture but it also played the role as a performative piece. Performed in the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a place where one day I would also like to show my work, this self-destroying mechanism performed for 27 minutes in front of invited guests. During it’s short running there were balloons inflated and popped, colored smoke came from these balloons. Paintings were made and destroyed, and bottles came crashing to the ground. An upright piano, metal drums, a radio broadcast, a recording of Tinguely explaining his work, and a competing shrill voice correcting him provided the chaotic sound to the machine’s self-destruction.
There are videos of the performance at the MOMA and it’s fascinating to see one of Tinguely’s works in motion these useless machines hold their own aesthetic and truly test what is and what isn’t art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.