Cornelia Parker’s Endless Sugar (2011) at The Met Breuer takes on a unique yet familiar form, with thirty silver sugar bowls flattened and suspended in a line just a few inches off the ground.
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| Endless Sugar |
The description argues its existence as a “feminist play on Endless Column”, and while the violent alteration of such a domestic object could be seen as some act of rebellion against a woman’s expectations as a housewife, this narrative feels dated. As a response to Endless Column, this piece is successful in subverting the dominant verticality of the original, and can still read as a play off of it despite the difference in materials and forms.
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| Constantin Brancusi's Endless Column |
The delicacy of the objects’ suspension is a key element to this work, each piece perfectly in line with the next, floating at the same height. This attention to detail allows for the pieces to be read as a collective, despite each piece being separate. With energy flowing smoothly from one object to the next, the viewer follows the horizontal column this piece creates using the same formal properties of repetition and alignment that would lead a viewer’s eyes up Endless Column. The key difference is that Brancusi's work leads a viewer’s eyes upwards, while Endless Sugar makes its viewers look down to the floor, scanning from one end to the other. This tactic of utilizing a downward gaze feels as if it is trying to induce pity in the viewer, as they are looking at these destroyed yet beautiful objects, nearly on the floor. The problem there is that this piece is being framed as a feminist work, and a physical point of view that induces pity should not be tied with feminist ideas. The narratives of the marginalized should be lifted up, not lowered down to ground level.
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