Artist
John B. BisbeeTitle
BriefCreation Date
1988Medium & Support
steel nails, wire, metal and woodDimensions
10 7/8 in. x 16 1/8 in. x 1 3/4 in. (27.62 cm x 40.96 cm x 4.45 cm)Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, and a grant from the Artists' Resource Trust, a fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community FoundationAccession Number
2001.20Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.Please suggest keywords to describe this object. Separate multiple keywords by commas. Example: road,angel,technology,toy
Brief is made of the essential but often overlooked objects that hold together the spaces we inhabit: nails. In this, the artist’s first sculpture made from the obsessive exploitation of the nail, a dense accretion of rusted brads reveals an organic pattern. Bisbee describes this as the “bioindustrial” quality of his accumulative sculptural practice, which transforms commonly available, inexpensive elements into art material. The work’s everyday character, reinforced by its other found materials (handle, wood, stovepipe and barbed wire) is framed within an overall geometric shape resembling a briefcase. The sculpture’s moot status—as a vessel-like object that contains nothing—embodies the tension between its association with corporate culture and the commonplace qualities of the materials from which it’s made. Its barbed-wire midsection projects an ominous tone.
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