Wire
Sometimes just randomly bending wire can be therapeutic and pretty.
This isn’t a new idea, of course…
No one has identified “The Philadelphia Wire Man” (or woman). Whoever the person is or was, s/he was obsessive, single-minded in technique, probably always walking. Perhaps even homeless. Over 600 of these small, tightly-wrapped, street-debris, fetish-like clusters were found in an alley during the renovation of South Street during the late ’70s. I like to envision a slowly-moving figure walking the streets, picking up trinket-like pieces of trash, wire- scrap, etc., an intuitive wrapping and tieing taking place until a hand-sized conglomerate object was obtained. Once hand-sized, this fetish object was no doubt stuffed in a pocket and another piece started. At the end of the day or the week, pockets were emptied into the hiding place.
More on OCD and art later.
I saw his stuff at City Hall in PHL years and years ago. It was very interesting and I have never forgotten it. Do you know who owns the exhibit now? I am trash doll pictures when I walk at lunch in West Chester PA, they have to be made only from finding on that one walk, you can’t collect them for weeks and then make the pictures. Some are very very strange, but I like them. I haven’t made any recently, some are made from trash, and mixed with nature items too. The first one I made is called “Mardi Gra Lady”. My friend Mike at work gave me the idea, something he saw at a Art Fair in Delaware.
Comment by Diane Hoag — January 12, 2007 @ 2:32 pm