Life Support (2005, Destroyed)
Found coat rack, electrical cord, electrical outlet, light fixtures, florescent tubes, twine, masking tape, plastic wrap, corn kernels, misc. hardware.
(approx. 60 x 24 x 72 inches)
This work consists of four volumes hung with twine from a found coat rack. Each volume is made of masking tape and plastic wrap. Organically shaped, they suggest bodies with appendages. Each is also a vessel filled with corn kernels. Florescent tubes buried within the corn light the containers with a soft glow and provide warmth. Electricity for the light bulbs is supplied through wires that hang down from an outlet at the top of the rack.
The hanging vessels contain characteristics of living bodies. The outside shell protects the seeds while heat radiates from an internal source. Yet, the bodies are only man-made extractions of a natural organism, their shape ultimately cast from the body of a chicken. The supporting framework for these bodies evokes an incubator, nurturing their embryonic state. Symbolically, it is an effort to give life back to an animal that has been fully exploited to meet human demands.


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