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Oded Hirsch’s The Lift at Liverpool Biennial 2012

Monday, September 24th, 2012

Oded Hirsch's Lift at Liverpoo Biennial 2012 from the front  in the rain

I’ve passed
Oded Hirsch’s The Lift (2012) a few times since the start of this years Biennial. Today I took a few quick shots of it in the rain (see gallery at the bottom of the page).

It’s an interesting piece and is attracting a fair amount of attention since it appears in the middle of the Liverpool 1 shops. I like it but not as much as say Rotating Yates’s Wine Lodge Building or Do Ho Suh’s Between.

There seem to be a lot of pieces of art in public spaces that break through pavements (eg the waterspout at the Sea Odyssey earlier this year) at the moment and its becoming a bit of an overdone cliche. It also lacks detail. Its more of an impression of a lift than a lift: there are a couple of wheels on the front but if it had had a bit more engineering to it (cable, safety gear etc) it would look less like a large metal box and more like a lift.

Still if you’re going to put art in public places it needs to attract attention and engage with passers by which this seems to do very well.

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