Exploration of the Modern Form

In Eliot Weinberger’s film theory essay “Camera People,” there is minor point that notes: with “simultaneous time, the babble of voices overlapping and interrupting each other, the rapid succession of images, the cacophony of programmed and random sounds: all modern art is urban art” (Weinberger 49).  While Weinberger then transitions to the medium of film, in examining the carefully selected works of the ICA, these inherently reflexive meditations on the modern form by an institution dedicated to preserving modern form offer a means of rationalizing how the shimmering skyscrapers and cranes won the war of iconoclasm being waged in the streets of the Seaport District.  Czech Modernism Mirrored and Reflected Infinitely is comprised of several glass reproductions of decanters reflected backwards infinitely through a trick of mirrors and glass. Meant to evoke “the shifts in labor of the last century as the handcrafted was frequently replaced by the machine-made” these decanters offer a number of revelations.  In their sleek finish, lateral presentation, geometric symmetry, and the illusion of a vanishing point they almost appear as a city skyline, echoing Weinberger’s words as well as expressing an idealized refinement of the urban form.  However, the mis-en-abyme that makes the work so powerful belies a more troublesome property, a desire for the modern form to propagate itself infinitely.  The refinement of the work contains an inherent manifesto on the necessity for eventual perfection of the urban form, which necessitates the iconoclasm of any older form.  Despite the instinct to use this mandate to reinforce the already sinister conception of gentrification in the popular mindset, the implications here are much more complicated as often the older forms to be eliminated are also forms of modernity.  The red house framed by the ICA as well as the old ICA building of the 1970’s are no less urban than the ICA, simply less modern; a buckling concrete pier, not a minute from the ICA, is left to decay at the doorstep of this sleek modern structure. 

Like the decanters, if one looks from the right angle Dormeuse almost feels architectural.

The concept of the palimpsest does not really encompass this notion of self-destruction inherent to urbanity.  While it may appear that humans are the writers of the urban landscape, the truth may be that at some point, modernity began to write its own destiny.  Dormeuse, a chaise lounge in the ICA, is wrought in "steel tread plate" so as to destroy the furniture’s association with "feminine leisure, relaxation, and economic privilege." Here, the implicit messages of this piece of modern art turn on its long-time patron of the upper class, while approaching it without context yields an object that rejects humans in general by ossifying a once functional household item.  Reexamining Seastead’s desire for the ICA to run out into the sea, away from the urban poverty and dingy architecture of the past, gives an overwhelming sense of modernity’s self-disgust.  This sense of shame, which drives the auto-cannibalism of urban structures, still requires a human mediator to achieve physical results.  In choosing a sort of high-futurism for the waterfront, the City of Boston, the ICA, and wealthy supporters expose a certain worship of an invisible idea of modernity.