#found object assemblage

[shoutsfromthedesert]

Nancy Rubins @ Gagosian

Our Friend Fluid Metal

I think of propaganda dropped from airplanes during wartime: leaflets filled with misinformation, food for hungry civilians, candy for children. I think of warplanes dropping candy for enemy children. I think of metal playground toys dropping as bombs and landing with a thud on city side streets and alleys or in the countryside. Or what if bombs were shaped like little cartoon animals? They would tumble as they fell.

These objects look like explosions, like violent clouds of debris and smoke and burning earth.

The fact that they are bound by wire struck me as very do-it-yourself, a way that I might have assembled them, a practical mechanical solution that I found accessible. Many artists would want to hide the hardware, the wire and the holes drilled for attaching them, but Rubins lets the mechanics exist on the surface unashamed.

Historical capsules of postwar America: a few Choochoos, several Rocket Ships, which look like bombs, Seahorses, Elephants,Lambs, Scary Seals, Weird Chickens, Ducks, Dolphins (my favorites), a few Motorcycles, Horses, many Horses, and strangely only one Car, despite the fact that the automobile would come to define America in the 1950's. But there are no Airplanes. Each piece feels unique and carries its own decay without apology.

Photos by David Nakabayashi © all rights reserved

[calamitystrange-blog]

.where were you hiding?.

i know you've already seen plenty of photos of this one, but after so many questions about these boxes and the contents therein, i figure i might as well explain them.

this another of my found object assemblage pieces currently on display at chimera arts in santa cruz. from the heretics and heathens show april 1 - may 28, 2011

also made entirely from things i owned and have unearthed out of the nooks and crannies where i hide and store all the little things i collect.

this one, a self-portrait of sorts- from memories of my childhood. made from:

a wooden box that i constructed to store seeds for the garden years ago- my first independent carpentry project.... i think i was 19 at the time.

my madame alexander doll (scarlett o'hara: circa 1970-ish) who's legs i replaced with larger ones from a different dime-store doll, in order to better reflect my physical dimensions.

my grandmother's sheet music.  she was a professional pianist, trained at the new england conservatory of music. i have boxes and boxes of that fabulous paper.

keys from my grandparents house, and from the many turn-of-the-century furnishings with built-in locks that inhabited the space that i explored on secret missions so many years ago.

the figurine of one of my uncle jim's sports trophies. 

a sterling silver baby spoon from my seemingly endless collection of family heirlooms.

a photograph of my my grandparents with my mother and her brother, taken in 1947 at their home in mansfield, ohio.

a skull collected from the utah desert.

a metal printmaking stamp with an image of a temple on it- that i discovered, tucked away in a junk store in athens, greece.

bullet shell casings, collected from a variety of places.

vintage bottles- (i have a ton of them).

an artificial rose.

a bicycle chain ring.

and two antique nails through the palms of her hands.

©kelley richardson 2o11