Using the one-way mirrors often associated with police interrogating rooms, the installation is a controversial public toilet that only caters to the daring. From the outside, all that is perceivable is the reflection of the toilet’s surroundings. From the inside, however, the person using the washroom gets a front row seat to everything happening beyond, allowing him or her to not miss anything. Created by Monica Bonvicini, the Don’t Miss a Sec may inspire beating hearts, especially when some passersby use the reflecting surfaces as a mirror, yet it also has deeper meaning aside from simply revolving around the voyeuristic. The British artist reveals, “It relates to the urge, during big art events where so much is about “see and be seen,” to not miss anything.” Since the nineties, artist Monica Bonvicini has confronted audiences with drawings, installations, videos, and photographs that explore the construction of sexual identity through architecture. Her large-scale sculptural works provoke modernism with sheets of shattered glass and non-functional metal scaffolds and include feisty sexual references with strategic placement of riveted black leather. Along with Bonvicini’s focus on the gendered nature of the built and building environment comes the notion of power. The force is arguably at work in all facets of our lives but weighs heavily on the ins and outs of the art world.
