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My name is Elisabeth Sherman,
and I am the curatorial assistant
for the Whitney Biennial 2012,
and I'm standing here in Oscar Tuazon's
sculpture titled "For Hire."
It's a sculpture made up
of modular components.
Each component is the same exterior
dimensions, but they're all crafted
individually with different materials
and relating to different parts
of a building.
They all reflect
ancillary spaces of buildings
that we use every day,
encounter frequently,
but never pay attention to.
As you're walking around the piece,
you'll encounter different elements
from building construction,
so some of the modules
are very spare to emulate
a hallway construction,
but with the kind of drywall
taken down, just the steel structure
left behind.
There are a couple of staircases,
there's a shower basin, lots of doorways,
all these kinds of elements that we read
as architecture, but disassembled
and recombined in a new way.
The piece was designed specifically
for the exhibition and in conversation
with fellow Biennial artist K8 Hardy,
who will be doing a runway show
on the fourth floor.
The piece will go up to the fourth floor
for K8's runway show
and become her actual runway.
So he made it modular so that it could be
reconfigured and that the stairs
in the piece will be the stairs
the models walk up
and the Plexiglas will make the floor
that they walk across.
And then it will return
to the lobby gallery and be reconfigured.
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