New York
The big buzz surrounding Cornelia Parker’s Transitional Object (Psycho Barn) on the Met roof was well-deserved. The family-friendly art experience offered up visual clues in many directions. Though the Hitchcock film Psycho (1960) is in black and white, Parker’s scaled-down (three-quarters actual size), blood-red version of the Bates house had many of the same features, including the wagon-wheel wood scallops on the porch and an oculus on the steeply sloped Mansard roof. Like its inspiration, Parker’s object was only the front of a house. Behind its façade, steel supports dispelled the illusion of “home” and revealed the set; large water tanks served as ballast so that the work wouldn’t blow off the roof. The title, Transitional Object (Psycho Barn), is significant on several fronts…see the entire review in the print version of January/February’s Sculpture magazine.
