Review of a work of art

 Cross matching

 

You are going to read four reviews of a work of art on show at the Museum of Modern Art PS1 (MoMA PS1) in New York. For questions 37-40, choose from the reviews A-D. The reviews may be chosen more than once.

 

Review of a work of art

 

A

Olafur Eliasson's installation at the Museum of Modern Art PS1 in New York, Your Waste of Time, consists of broken chunks of Iceland’s Vatnajokull, Europe's largest glacier. The museum had to turn one of their main galleries into a walk-in freezer to be able to display them , a costly exercise but one that is justifiable in terms of its powerful impact. According to the museum, the pieces of ice chosen for the project are about 800 years old. That sounds about right to Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Scambos speculates that the ice came from the 'Little Ice Age', the period between the 16th and 19th centuries during which glaciers grew larger than they ever have since - and advanced quickly. 'These glaciers bear testimony to our history - being suspended and frozen for thousands of years - and now they are melting away, as if our whole history is fading,' said Eliasson. Stunning to look at, sad message.

 

B

Deep in the basement of MoMA PS1 , there's a freezing cold room. This contains a number of large chunks of bluish-white ice brought together by the controversial artist Olafur Eliasson. The installation is called Your Waste of Time and its lesson would appear to be that global warming is having a devastating impact on our world. But that’s hardly news. Ironically, the piece is itself contributing not inconsiderably to the problem, as an extraordinary amount of electricity is required to stop the installation from melting over the floor of the basement gallery. It’s a curious piece with a carbon footprint that seems hard to justify on artistic grounds. It lacks beauty, and the skills involved in the installation 's creation would seem to be less those of the artist whose name is on the gallery wall than of the technical staff who transported ice blocks from the Arctic to New York. Are they in fact the people who have been wasting their time?

 

C

More and more artists are beginning to tackle the causes and consequences of global warming, particularly the rapidly retreating polar ice caps. Thus, when the artist Olafur Eliasson produced his latest installation, Your Waste of Time, his Icelandic background (notable, of course, for having numerous glaciers) may have contributed to the sense of irony conveyed by this thought-provoking, infuriating, but at the same time elegantly crafted exposé on the dangers of glacial extinction. He even brought some of that background with him for the installation itself, constructed using Icelandic glacial ice which must be kept below freezing for the duration of the exhibition, at a cost of, arguably, a little of that Icelandic background in years to come in terms of the power needed to maintain such an icy temperature for four weeks. Despite Eliasson's positive environmental message, the irony of the manner of this installation's construction is not lost on the observer.

 

D

The very notion of a glacier is one of an unmoving edifice against the sands of time, a frozen state standing firm against the fluidity and pace of the modern world. Yet, through our best (or worst) efforts, the reality of the impact of global warming n these last remnants of the ancient world is now regularly beginning to feature in the art of those who live in the shadow of such edifices, a shadow that Eliasson is surely aware is getting smaller by the day. While his portfolio contains a variety of photographs and other works focused on this appealing icy subject, when regarding his new installation, Your Waste of Time, it then begs the question that if preserving the ice used in this installation at temperatures below freezing for four weeks is not of the utmost irony, then how does he reconcile the power needed to preserve his installation at the cost of preserving his own cultural and environmental heritage? Whose time has been wasted here?

 

37.- Which reviewer shares reviewer A's view that Your Waste of Time is visually attractive? ______

38.- Which reviewer shares reviewer D's interest in reflecting on the title of the installation? ______

39.- Which reviewer has the same opinion as reviewer D about the attraction that glaciers possess for artists? ______

40.- Which reviewer has a different opinion from the other reviewers on the environmental contradictions of the installation? ______

 

O’Dell Felicity (2016) Advanced Trainer. Reading Use of English Test 1 Part 6. Cambridge University Press: Dubai. Page 32.