Art I like - Laura Ellen Bacon

When Origin had a focus on basketry in 2009 this "nest" by Laura Ellen Bacon hung off the edge of the cube that housed the show (in the courtyard of Somerset House).

Not only is her work large-scale and eye-catching, the way it perches on the edges of things gives it fragility - or vulnerability. I imagine her wrestling with the branches, literally bending them to her will and vision ... much determination and focus is needed to make work like this.

Also the idea of something as 'natural' as a nest in an urban environment teeters on the edge, full of contradictions and disjunctions. What sort of bird?-creature made it? Did they think it would be safe here? Were they intending to use it as a shelter, or was making it just the expression of the nest-building imperative? Instead of laying eggs in it, was there some other agenda, a one-upmanship in the pecking order of the species? Or more rationally - did the artist want to use the structure a way of enlarging something that could go unnoticed- perhaps that animals and birds are adapting themselves to city life? Was it a matter of "there will be nice sharp edge/corner, what will look amazing there"? Does seeing this strange object in this strange place make us marvel at new possibilities? What sort of balance is it achieving?

The longer I look at it, the more strange and wonderful it becomes...