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The Hole at P.S.1, Fifth Solar Chthonic Wall Temple
Bobby:
But the name of this piece is the Hole at P.S.1.
Emmanuel:
Also known as Fifth Solar Chthonic Wall Temple.
Nora:
What is, I don't even know what the word Chthonic means.
Bobby:
Neither do I, but I'm sure we'll know after this.
Nora:
I know. I guess we'll have to look it up.
Lizzie:
We're standing in front of the Hole at P.S.1 and it looks exactly like a hole in the wall. It's sort of almond shape. But if you look really far through the hole, you can actually see a very small opening out of the actual building.
Emmanuel:
Basically, he saw this hole poking through the wall. So at one point he decided what if I just make this hole bigger? And so he did.
Lizzie:
He was sort of interested in negative space as sculpture, so shaping objects so that they would sort of make sculpture out of the space that they were in. And that's exactly what he's done with the Hole at P.S.1. The building at the time, dusty, water everywhere. Again, they were trying to clean up this building that had been abandoned for so long.
Bobby:
So if you just imagine there's no white walls, everything's darker, everything's more dirty, it's less professional. It's less clean. It's less made for the public.
Lizzie:
When the sunlight would line up perfectly with the hole, there would be this huge beam of light that would come in through this hole. It would reflect off of the dust in the air and the water on the floor. It would sort of fill the space with these particles that you couldn't see until the light was shining perfectly into the hole.
Bobby:
There's also a lot of sexual reference in this piece.
Emmanuel:
It's supposed to give the sense that you're going through a birth canal.
Bobby:
Very vaginal and phallic, phallic being with the ray of light and vaginal with the almond shape of the hole.
Lizzie:
It's shining this new light into P.S.1. and it's this sort of symbolic rebirth of the building into this new space.
Emmanuel:
Chthonic or Chthonic, however you want to pronounce it, actually means that it's relating or pertaining to the underworld. So it was him trying to break out and trying to reach maybe Olympus or just break out of the underworld altogether.
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By MoMA PS1
5
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Bobby:
But the name of this piece is the Hole at P.S.1.
Emmanuel:
Also known as Fifth Solar Chthonic Wall Temple.
Nora:
What is, I don't even know what the word Chthonic means.
Bobby:
Neither do I, but I'm sure we'll know after this.
Nora:
I know. I guess we'll have to look it up.
Lizzie:
We're standing in front of the Hole at P.S.1 and it looks exactly like a hole in the wall. It's sort of almond shape. But if you look really far through the hole, you can actually see a very small opening out of the actual building.
Emmanuel:
Basically, he saw this hole poking through the wall. So at one point he decided what if I just make this hole bigger? And so he did.
Lizzie:
He was sort of interested in negative space as sculpture, so shaping objects so that they would sort of make sculpture out of the space that they were in. And that's exactly what he's done with the Hole at P.S.1. The building at the time, dusty, water everywhere. Again, they were trying to clean up this building that had been abandoned for so long.
Bobby:
So if you just imagine there's no white walls, everything's darker, everything's more dirty, it's less professional. It's less clean. It's less made for the public.
Lizzie:
When the sunlight would line up perfectly with the hole, there would be this huge beam of light that would come in through this hole. It would reflect off of the dust in the air and the water on the floor. It would sort of fill the space with these particles that you couldn't see until the light was shining perfectly into the hole.
Bobby:
There's also a lot of sexual reference in this piece.
Emmanuel:
It's supposed to give the sense that you're going through a birth canal.
Bobby:
Very vaginal and phallic, phallic being with the ray of light and vaginal with the almond shape of the hole.
Lizzie:
It's shining this new light into P.S.1. and it's this sort of symbolic rebirth of the building into this new space.
Emmanuel:
Chthonic or Chthonic, however you want to pronounce it, actually means that it's relating or pertaining to the underworld. So it was him trying to break out and trying to reach maybe Olympus or just break out of the underworld altogether.