Cole Tobin - Bockscar

This art piece is done by Mathew Day Jackson, he calls is "Bockscar" and it was created in 2010. He is an American artist who has worked with sculpture, painting, photography, video, collage, drawing, performance and installation. He graduated with an MFA from Rutgers university in 2001 and got his BFA from the university of Washington in Seattle. Mathew was born in 1974 and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Mathew is represented by Hauser and Wirth and Grimm Gallery in Amsterdam. This art piece looks like it could be made out of many things; charcoal, painted wood, burnt plane parts. Although many of those sound like they could be correct, there not. This art piece is made entirely out of burnt wood. Bockscar was the B - 29 that dropped the second atomic bomb on japan in 1945. Jackson constructed this from charred wood and the view through the windscreen in Formica. The blackens wood evokes destruction. But Jackson says the pastel hues recall the sunsets glorified the 19th century American landscape paintings. Formica was used for airplane propellers in Word War II, and then in postwar suburban homes, where it often covered cheaper materials. Jackson calls it the "veneer that supports an illusion." When I was walking by this piece a teacher called me over and told me that it was made entirely out of burnt wood which really confused me becaus usually burnt wood just falls apart. I went to go read about it because I wanted to see how he made it, then I knew I wanted to write about it.