Urs Fischer at Cockatoo Island
Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour has a fascinating—if checkered—history. A former convict prison, a shipyard and a reformatory for wayward girls, the island also has a fascinating present as the site of a new installation by Swiss artist Urs Fischer. Fischer visited Sydney under the auspices of Kaldor Art Projects, whose previous projects have included Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Wrapped Coast–One Million Square Feet (1969) and Jeff Koons' floral Puppy (1995). Visit Cockatoo Island between now and 3 June 2007 to view Fischer's artfully clunky and wonderfully gritty works – a skeleton climbs into/escapes from a packing case, impossibly contorted forearms are suspended from the ceiling and in the installation's central piece, a huge knobbly structure, recalling both tree branches and disembodied limbs, spans the island's central forecourt. A ghoulish spectacle.
