A recent art installation at the Hayward Gallery in London, England has exploded. Wait, what? You read that right, exploded…well, I guess, combusted is a better term. Majestic Splendor by South Korean artist Lee Bul was all set for its preview event when only a few hours before a fire broke out while it was being moved by gallery staff.
This is not the first time that this work has been removed from an exhibition. The artwork, which is made up of rotting fish covered with sequins in plastic bags, was removed from the Museum of Modern Art in in New York City in 1997 after visitors gagged at the stench. An addition of potassium permanganate was made to combat the smell but this also increased the potential for combustion. This compound (the potassium permanganate not the rotting fish corpses) has a myriad of uses such disinfecting water and treating fungal infections. Concerns were raised for the safety of this piece and as the gallery staff tried to remove it, it caught fire. The fire superficially damaged the gallery and pushed the exhibition’s opening back from May 30 to June 1.
So, how is this possible? And should we be afraid of keeping fish past its best-by date? Potassium permanganate is not normally combustible by itself but when added to other chemicals such as those emitted by the rotting fish, they can become so. As fish decay, they emit amines (compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen) which then reacted with the potassium permanganate. The fact that these things were also enclosed in plastic bags with no hole left for exhaust was probably also a factor. The buildup of trapped gasses had nowhere to go. Kaboom!
This is not the first time that exploding fish have made the news, although this may be the first piece of artwork to do so. In 2014, a fire in a warehouse on the east coast of Sweden caused cans of fermented herring to explode and go flying through the air. The heat from the fire caused the fermented gasses inside to expand and consequently explode .There are also many videos of exploding dead beached whales that you could peruse, if you are so interested.
Other artists have also used rotting things to illustrate the rotting of humanity before Lee Bul. In 1970, Swiss/Icelandic artist Dieter Roth installed 37 suitcases full of cheese at the Eugenia Butler Gallery in Los Angeles and left them to rot over the summer. The health department had tried unsuccessfully to close it down and the fetid smell was evident out on the street in front of the gallery.
We Canadians also had our own version of a putrid art piece at the National Gallery with Jana Sterbak’s Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic. This meat-dress was a good decade earlier than Lady Gaga’s infamous ensemble and caused much controversy. One of Ottawa’s city councilors called it a “decadent and perverse waste of taxpayers’ money”. Sterbak went on to receive the Governor General’s art award in 2012.
As an art-lover, I have seen many different artists’ exhibitions and think that artistic expression comes in many forms but I think that I draw the line at artwork that can hurt you physically. If you have to wear a flak jacket to look at it, you may have crossed over that line. The whole assault on my olfactory senses is not my idea of fun either but hey, that’s just my opinion. You may view things differently.
–Janice Willson
References:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27258303
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5807327/Rotten-fish-installation-EXPLODES-Hayward-Gallery-London.html
