I was walking past the Royal Academy and was literally stopped in my tracks as I came across the installation of this arresting sculpture in the courtyard. It is Cornelia Parker's Transitional Object (PsychoBarn). Originally commissioned and created for the Roof Garden space of the Met museum in New York during 2016.
It is inspired by, and meant to evoke the spirit of icons of classic American architecture such as red barns, the vernacular architure in Edward Hopper paintings, and the Bates Motel building from the 1960 Hitchcock classic, Psycho, (itself based on buildings found in Hopper's paintings).
Bates Motel - Psycho
A classic American red barn
Edward Hopper - House By The Railroad, 1925
(I was lucky enough to see this painting in Paris last year on a rare European outing from MOMA, its American home here).
The sculpture is created from actual found and reclaimed elements of a real American red barn, reassembled to create a fantastic structure. All is not what it appears to be however, as Parker has created a clever illusion which you discover when you venture around the PsychoBarn...
The installation again references Psycho, as seen from the rear, in that it resembles a stage set and building facade used on countless movie lots. There is something incongruous and almost surreal about the transposition of PsychoBarn to this setting, but at the same time it is an installation that fits perfectly into its temporary RA Annenberg courtyard locale, echoing the classical architecture of the Royal Academy itself.
Cornelia Parker: Transitional Object (PsychoBarn)
from 18th September
Annenberg Courtyard
Burlington House
Royal Academy of Arts
London
