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David Mach: A Hair's Breadth

DATES December 15, 1989 through March 05, 1990
ORGANIZING DEPARTMENT Contemporary Art
COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
  • November 1, 1989 A Hair’s Breadth, a site-specific installation using over 50 tons of castaway magazines, by contemporary Scottish artist David Mach will open at The Brooklyn Museum December 15 and remain on view through March 5, 1990. The magazines will be constructed into several monumental pillars, which repeat the proportions of two columns already standing in the Museum’s Grand Lobby, where the work will be installed.

    Born in Methil, Fife, Scotland, in 1956, David Mach attended the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art at Dundee and is presently working on his doctorate on the subject of landscapes at the Royal College of Art in London. While he has exhibited his work extensively throughout Europe, his installation in Brooklyn marks his first solo museum exhibition in this country.

    Unlike the Museum’s existing columns, Mach’s installation is short-lived and will be returned to its original state of waste after the exhibition closes. It is through his transformation of discarded objects into art that Mach demythologizes the artistic process, while communicating his concern about consumerism and overproduction.

    The installation was organized by Charlotta Kotik, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum. The Grand Lobby installations are made possible by a generous grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. Additional support has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1989 - 1994. 1989, 162.
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