David Mach: the Great Outdoors
Born in Scotland and living in London, David Mach, at the time I worked with him, was creating enormous installations from excess materials such as rubber tires, newspapers and magazines. He paid his way through university by working in factories, and those experinces helped inform his art making work ethic. In commissioning him to produce a new work, the Great Outdoors for the Contempiorary Art Center (Cincinnati), I had to negoiate a contract that included a daily (working) rate, food, lodging, and materials that included 50 tons of newspapers, an airplane, jetski, and assorted other goodies. Considering that the galleries were located on the second floor and the elevator was six feet wide, made for some interesting problems to address.
The Cincinnati Enquirer donated the newspapers and we sourced the other items from the community.  Once all the materials were gathered, Mach hand-placed every newspaper, one by one, overtop of a wooden armature comprised of pallets. It was a two-week, 8am to 5pm, non-stop weaving/dance performance that he alone created. The objects are not sitting on top of the paper but are contained by them. The work that he created resembled a flood that crashed through the museum's walls depositing the debris that the waters carried, once the waters retreated.Â
NOTE: A reliable source informed me that the noted filmmakers Ethan and Joel Coen (Coen Brothers) visited the museum while the show was on view and were so taken by Mach's work that it inspired them to stage the flood scene at the end of the movie, Oh Brother, Where Aren't Thou. Â