The Super Gross Medium Was the Message

I decided to lie down and relax. Although the benches lacked any identifying placards, artist statement or invitation to do so, I needed a break and was happy to learn that they were pretty comfortable for concrete slabs made to look like Flex-A-Beds. Surrounded by a sea of green grass, a cloudless sky and the California sun, my jet lag began to melt as I rested on Teresa Margolles’ latest installation.

Teresa Margolles, Untitled (2010). Image Courtesy of the Los Angeles Nomadic Division website.

But there at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), in the shadow of the mausoleum that Eli Broad built for himself, I couldn’t help but fixate on the materials used to create my temporary bed; a mixture of cement and “liquid that was used to clean corpses in an autopsy room in Mexico – four gruesome fatalities, all products of drug – and gang-related violence.”

The commission, a collaboration between LACMA and the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), encourages its audience “to feel the overwhelming energy of aggression that produced the infused material,” while existing as both monuments to the dead and a place for the living to rest.

Never before had Marshall McLuhan’s over referenced theory rang so true for me. Although at times I’ve found an artist’s use of certain medium amusing (Hirst with flies, Warhol with his piss), the connection between Margolles, her medium and the lives that those benches represented was overwhelming. How did Margolles come into possession of the liquid? How many lives have been lost to drug related violence in Mexico? Do the victim’s families know that these benches exist; that they are bringing joy and awareness to people a short trip, but a world away, from their hometown? It was a lot to think about before a nap.

Teresa Margolles’ benches will be on display on the Resnick North Lawn at LACMA until August 28, 2011. For more information go here.

Editorial Disclaimer: The author of this post received discounted or complementary admission to the above mentioned exhibition, courtesy of the host institution, organization or gallery.