Damian Ortega at the Boston ICA

I saw the Damian Ortega show that Boston's ICA last week. My thoughts, in a word: unimpressed. The biggest and best piece there was a deconstructed, suspended VW bug (above). I was able to walk through it and around it, some people were even knocking it a bit! He took apart every last piece of the car, resembling a diagram in a car manual. I'm not sure most artists would let people get within 1 foot of that piece, so I have a lot of respect for that. The other pieces included balancing chairs, blown glass and pieces of leather that were too abstract for me to comprehend. I went home and googled him, convinced that I had heard his name before, and I came across a piece that reminded me of something else I had seen. I went to Zurich a few years back and saw a piece that had all these weapons suspended in mid-air and forced the viewer to walk through them. There was also a soundtrack playing in the background of little clanging metallic sounds. Nothing too haunted-house-y, but just enough for me to think a gun might accidentally go off or a sword might come loose from it's hold. It was awesome and resembled the piece below. If anyone knows what artist I am referring to, please let me know because I have googled every possible combination of terms to no avail. Anyway, Google proved to me that Damian Ortega has a lot more meaningful and interesting work than was exhibited at the ICA, but at least it was Free Thursdays. ••••