The Tables Have Turned
Naomi Beckwith recalls a memorable installation.
When the MCA's current building opened in 1996, I was here for the opening party, which was the coolest ever. But I distinctly remember seeing a work by Adrian Piper called Cornered, and it’s a work that stuck in my memory for years afterwards. It’s a video installation that is essentially a TV screen on a platform behind an overturned table. And, of course, an overturned table itself is already a metaphor: the tables have turned. So this is a situation where what you imagine is going to happen may not happen.