Use it for What It’s Used For
Part of Points & Lines
Eli Hansen & Oscar Tuazon
Use It For What It’s Used For, 2009
Concrete, wood, steel, cinder blocks, silicone, solar panel, charge controller, service disconnect, 12V battery, wiring, light, timer
18’ x 24’ 5” x 13’ 9”
Courtesy of the artists and Maccarone Gallery
…Eli Hansen (b. 1979; lives and works in Tacoma, WA) and Oscar Tuazon’s (b. 1975; lives and works in Paris, France) Use It For What It’s Used For also presents itself as a kind of ruin, yet of a very different kind. This apparently incomplete structure could be the remnant of an improvised building project that has been abandoned; however, the reason why is obscured. Even still, as the title proposes, visitors should feel free to enter this ghost-like pavilion and utilize it in whatever way “works.” To possibly pay credence to the fact that no designer could ever envision all possible activities and events for all groups, the work literally presents itself as an empty structure to be both interpolated and completed by each and every viewer in his or her own way. This kind of provisional use, as well as the artwork’s use of makeshift construction’ including scrap from a previous project’is analogous to the various forms and functions that unauthorized settlements take where the roles of proprietorship are often grey at best. Paying close attention to its context within a site with set rules and hours, Use It For What It’s Used For possess a light fixture, which turns on at night automatically when LentSpace is locked. Although this could be read as a redundant or vestigial “security” device, the “on” light can only be experienced from outside by peering though LentSpace’s locked perimeter chain link security fence. Through this displacement, the unattainable experience of a “perfect” open or public site for all might be implied…
