Shanks for the memory?

Dave Vickers. Art Entry 23rd Feb 2009

Image courtesy of www.curlby.com

If you get caught short anywhere
near london’s tate britain gallery, there
is a solution, but one that’ll have you
grappling with all kinds of long-buried
discomfiture issues.

You thought that the practice of relieving yourself in the wide-open ouitdoors was restricted to the realm of bad dreams; and how wrong you were.__________Artist Monica Bonvicini has created Don’t miss a sec, a one-way reflective glass toilet
cubicle that’ll test the resolve of even the most confident cable layer. As
onlookers nose the glass to see if they can get a glimpse of the mysterious
cubicle contents, the ‘user’ can see it all – a 360o clear view of... everything.
So in many ways this cubicle is pretty much akin to any telephone box
in London, but the idea of zombie- like observers clamouring to get a
glimpse of you going about your business is not everyone’s idea
of comfort, and that is the whole point. Monica insists the installation
is designed to make us “question our own environments.”

Personally, when it comes to commodes, I have walked in on a few questionable
environments, but never one as brass as this. This installation is genius, and
on entry, even the most cross-legged, wide-eyed desperado would have to
question going through with the full operation. So, in truth it should flush
out the men from the boys and open the lid on a few cases of agoraphobia
while enhancing any mild cases of rest-room stage fright. Whatever
it does, the Don’t miss a sec public cludgey certainly yanked our design
chain, and for pure innovation, we think Monica Bonvicini deserves a
CBE or something – then she could see how she handles visiting a throne
surrounded by clambering idiots. x

© 2008 Dave Vickers. All rights reserved.