Broken Homes - Andrew Mackenzie Review

In his article "Broken Homes" Mackenzie discusses Callum Morton's Work Valhalla,exhibited in the 2007 Venice Biennale. Mackenzie discusses Morton's work initially in a political sense suggesting the the dilapdated bullet-ridden ruin of a building to potentially be referencing the strains of terrorism and war. This idea he quickly discounts on account of fearing the fall of Morton's works into the depths of "political naivity".

Counteracting any political interpretations of the work; Mackenzie states, doubtless, that the work in fact references domesticity and the ever-growing tension between the public and private existance, instilled by architecture and social planning. Mackenzie goes on to discuss the physicality of the work, walking us through his encounter with the work, noting that the model itself is based upon one of Morton's childhood homes that his father designed. Despite this; "the work refuses the romanticism of biographical projection, not least through the staginess of constructed reality."

Within his descriptions of the work; Mackenzie notes the Hollywood "theme park size" elements to it; the soundtrack, faux flame englufed exterior, the visual evidence of the technology running the work, suggesting that Morton's intention is not to be taken seriously. In light of such a claim, Mackenzie states that the work IS in fact serious in another of it's layers of referencing that he undertsands as being a questioning of the nature of private and public existence. From here on, Mackenzie launches into several paragraphs of what may be described as sociological analysis interspersed with witticims and generalisations.

Having not viewed the work; I am in a lesser postion to critisize it, let alone someone's else's interpretation of it; however, I really feel that Mackenzie takes a fairly biased approach to the work; taking his favourite interpretations of the work and claiming them as gospel. Perhaps I'm being harsh, but to me, the work is too much like a theme-park, too drawn from Morton's own existance, too staged to be considered as anything but what it is; a set, a haunted house within the context of the prestigious Venice Biennale... and really, why can't it be can't it be considered that way?