I’m OK-You’re OK, a new commission by Ethan Breckenridge (b. 1977, Madison, WI), is a sculpture composed of 100 standard, functional furniture dollies, piled on top of one another to a staggering height of 16 feet. Typically used for transporting heavy items, dollies are often stacked in pairs or groups before or after moving something from one location to another, and give the sense of work in progress. Breckenridge exaggerates this common occurrence to a state of absurdity with the soaring and seemingly impossible height of the stack, turning something practical into an improbable feat. Although engineered to be stable, the dollies seem to be resting precariously, as if the entire structure could topple over at any minute. In this work, Breckenridge pays homage to Marcel Duchamp and artists who have followed in his footsteps by working with everyday objects and transforming them into nonfunctional works of art, as well as making reference to Constantin Brancusi’s Endless Column and Minimalists whose work includes the repetition of individual parts into sculptural arrangements, such as Donald Judd and his vertical stacks. Positioned within a seating area in the MetroTech Commons, I’m OK-You’re OK appears as a statuesque column resembling a civic monument or public marker.
