All your base are belong to us

We‘ve had a few laughs at the use public art museums make of stanchions and bases. The stanchions are to stop people touching, or in some cases seeing, sculpture and unglazed paintings, and the bases to remind sculptors that the floor is not the place for expensive art.

So it was good to see Peter Robinson join the game in his installation Snow Ball Blind Time at the Govett-Brewster. Crowded into spare spaces left by the monster chain trail were hundreds of stanchions made out of polystyrene. Too frail to keep people back and too art to be exhibited in most public art spaces without their own Son of Savings Bank stanchions in place. Robinson did plinths too, bases made from chewed blocks of styrene with the soft white rubble drifting on the floor.

It was an unusual to see such a delicate work displayed so that viewers to get as close as they liked. This of course is one of the great benefits of projects like this. The artist, as owner of the work, has control over both the display and security. Thanks Peter.

Images: Snow Ball Blind Time (detail)