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Artist Encourages Viewers to Destroy Her Delicate Sculptures


Usually during an art show, visitors are asked to not touch the artwork. However, during artist Courtney McCracken's installation entitled For Your Pleasure, she actually encouraged people to destroy everything that they saw. In the one night interactive installation, McCracken set up all kinds of destructible objects like inflated red balloons, a complex but delicate tower of pencils, a glass jar, and a box of drained eggshells.

The objects were paired with things like scissors, darts, and heavy weights so that people could “entertain the deeply rooted childlike desire to destroy.” The artist says she has always been fascinated with this childlike tendency to destroy things and so she wanted to provide that experience to her audience. For one night only, visitors popped the balloons, stomped on the eggshells, and knocked the tower of pencils over with a heavy weight. For Your Pleasure provided the thrill of destroying things and making a mess without getting into trouble or having to clean it up afterwards. Watch the video below to see how the pieces met their demise.










Courtney McCracken's website

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