Manifest Destiny
Now this is the kind of installation art we can get behind.
Mark Reiglman‘s most recent work Manifest Destiny! is emobied by a tiny wooden cabin affixed to the side of the Hotel des Arts in San Francisco.
In a time where cities are crumbling due to overpopulation and lack of infrastructure his piece sits there out in the open, quite precariously.
The artist hopes that seeing the cabin hanging on the wall evokes the “romantic spirit of the Western Myth” in passers by. So much of North American culture is built on the foundations of that spirit, but there’s no doubt that more than few people drew total blanks upon seeing the structure.
So let’s break it down: this isn’t a about love story, quite the opposite! The little wood cabin represents the claiming of some of the last spaces we have left in our cities.
It’s a call to action, there to make us aware of how arrogant the West has been in constantly seeking to conquer and claim land, territory and space. “A lonely beacon in the city’s dens landscape, and incongruous, haunting vision from below.”
If you happen to be in San Francisco between now and october 28th 2012, walk by Hotel des Arts and check it out. The images alone have a pretty strong impact, so we can only expect the real thing to be all the more jarring.


