989 : The Visual Tower

Marcel Broodthaers,
La Tour visuelle, 1966

This work is made of standardised, repeatable units: glass jars, wooden discs and pictures of an eye from a cosmetics advert. Broodthaers's use of commonly available objects in this work shows the impact of the 1960s, when Pop artists frequently made use of advertising and the replicated image in their work. However, the sculpture also opens up a range of ideas about voyeurism and consumer culture. There is no front or back view of the work: the eyes look out from every angle of the tower; there is no escape from their gaze.