Shredded

This piece pairs hundreds of nails with old rasps, bed springs, coils and a very well used cheese grater – all unsung heroes of other pieces. The cheese grater prepares portions of the meal, the nails hold structures together, bed springs are underneath the mattress….none of these elements are the stars, yet they are crucial to the success of the larger good. They are the workers.

I found the bed springs in an abandoned curbside bed. As I worked the springs free, I wondered about the life they had supported. Did someone die in that bed, make love in that bed, been born in that bed?  Now that the bed no longer served, I could bring those springs forward and they could live an entirely new life…as art.

I don’t know if everything is flowing down through the grater into smaller bits to provide a strong base or if the smaller bits along the bottom of the piece are being sucked up into the grater to fly out into the universe as something new.