Adam McEwen's staircase...

2:20 p.m.

Staircase, by Adam McEwen (2016)

Materials: wood, steel / Measures: 5.7 x 3.9 x 1.2 mts

Petzel Gallery, New York

Staircase, de Adam McEwen (2016) - Detail

Materials: wood, steel / Measures: 5.7 x 3.9 x 1.2 mts

Petzel Gallery, New York

21/04/16 - At Petzel Gallery in New York there's a set of stairs that lead to nowhere and it's shaped like a huge letter K. The installation is an invitation to experience it, the climb is narrow and you can almost touch the ceiling of the gallery. The descent is terrifying: the anxiety it causes is as large as the stairs themselves. It's just the same feeling we get from reading Kafka's stories, that's why the K represents the author and, more specifically, Josef K, the character trapped by an obscure, mute and unescapable system.

Adam McEwen was born in London but works in New York and "Harvest", the exhibition, focuses on movement. Apart from the staircase, there are two graphite sculptures that represent IBM's supercomputer Gene, and then a series of inkjet prints done on sponge (like those used for dish washing) of the four tunnels in Manhattan.

Each of the artworks represent movement in a different scale. The eyes of the visitors are trapped by the tunnels, and going up the stairs implies body movement. As for the computer, it represents the many movements turned into digital data that "move" through the net.