Pierced, 2013

On June 3, 2014 artist Scott Ingram took a 47-foot long wood I-Beam and drive it through the side of a house, two interior walls and out the other side. The temporary public art piece, titled “Pierced,” opened on June 15, 2014. 

 

The project is an extension of Ingram’s studio practice, which responds to and draws from the vocabulary of modernist art and architecture. Building components often populate his work, but iconic objects like cinderblocks, or in this case an I-Beam, are altered to subvert their originally intended function. In “Pierced,” Ingram fabricates an I-Beam from wood, not metal, and uses what is traditionally intended as a structural support to destabilize the house.

 

The site for the project is a generic, partially pre-fabricated Sears kit house built in 1971 at 850 Eastwood Avenue SE in Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood.  The roughly 1,000 sq. ft 3-bedroom/1 bath house is the only remaining example in the area of this type of mass produced structure, which was designed for people aspiring to the American Dream. “Pierced,” reflects the lost dreams of many for whom home ownership turned out to be a disaster and for others who question whether that dream is truly attainable for all.

 

The owner of the house is architect David Yocum, co-principal of the architectural firm bldgs, who offered it to Ingram as a site for a temporary work of art before he demolishes the existing structure to build a new home. The beam will enter the house through the outside wall at the northeast corner and exit the front of the house. Because it will be longer than the house is wide, sections of the beam (approximately 10-12 feet long) will protrude from either side.