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Course: Modernisms 1900-1980 > Unit 13
Lesson 1: Sculpture- Melvin Edwards, Some Bright Morning
- Hesse, Untitled
- Hesse, Untitled (Rope Piece)
- The last work of Eva Hesse
- Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party
- Louise Bourgeois, Cumul I
- Barbara Zucker, Mix, Stir, Pour (White Floor Piece)
- Barbara Zucker, Time Signatures: Homage to Linda and Lucy. My Luminaries
- Winsor, #1 Rope
- Mario Merz, Giap’s Igloo
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Winsor, #1 Rope
Jackie Winsor, #1 Rope, 1976, wood and hemp, 40-1/4 x 40 x 40 inches (SFMOMA, San Francisco). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- What are some other uses of hemp, besides wool?(2 votes)
- "In modern times hemp is used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, construction (as with Hemcrete and insulation), body products, health food and bio-fuel." (from Wikipedia)
See this link for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp(7 votes)
- what kind of string are they using?(3 votes)
- As described at0:22, Hemp from Cannabis just like Canvas, as twine.(3 votes)
- 6.04 Could it be be
symbolic for male{sticks) and female(hemp) Their interactions and depends? Power and indurence?(3 votes) - I wonder if the balls are solid hemp, or if they are wound around something? Is there a kernel of something else in the center of each? No way of knowing, but I can think about it...(2 votes)
- We can't even know if there is a central, interior, layer of hemp balls...(1 vote)
- I still don't understand if there is a "deeper" purpose behind this piece. Is it meant to convey something allegorically? Because to me, it does not evoke much emotion, it's not like a Rothko in that sense.(1 vote)
- it may be that we are looking at it on screens rather than being in a room with the object itself. I could imagine myself in a museum and saying, "I like that," but here at a laptop, I merely go, "ho-hum."(1 vote)
- Could you make a connection of feminism between the ball of hemp and how it could look like a ball of yarn and how much it took to wrap up the ball?(1 vote)
- why did the maker use one-color yarn? why not use rainbow colors?(1 vote)
- What holds this together? Are the balls of string woven into each other?(0 votes)
Video transcript
(jazzy music) Voiceover: We're at
SFMOMA and we're looking at a Jacki Winsor sculpture. This is called "#1 Rope"
and it dates to 1976. It's made out of square wood rods. Voiceover: There are 7 in each row. Voiceover: So 7 by 7. Voiceover: Seven squared. Voiceover: They're vertical
and they're holding 3 balls of hemp, which are roughly
wound into tight spheres. Voiceover: I found myself wondering, while we looked at this,
what was holding it together. Each stick seems very separate, and yet clearly they
are linked in some way; also by horizontal bars that we can't see. Voiceover: Or you can barely see. I think, in fact, perhaps
you're not even supposed to see. Voiceover: So it has a
kind of mysteriousness to its being able to stand up. Voiceover: At the same
time, they almost seem to have a kind of gravity
that holds them together. Voiceover: So interesting that she's using these found materials
and transforming them. I found myself immediately imagining the gesture of the winding. I knit so I often make skeins of yarn and it takes a really long
time to wind this much. Voiceover: There's real
labor involved here. Voiceover: It feels that way, yeah. Also the movement of the
hand to make the skeins. Voiceover: One wonders
what purpose these skeins, in a sense, hold, because
there almost feels like there's an industrial purpose, as if they are going to go
onto a loom of some sort. It's so interesting because we're thinking about the mechanized, and there is something mechanized here. Voiceover: In the grid. Voiceover: But on the other
hand, there's something that's so tactile and handmade. Voiceover: And it's looking
back at a kind of tradition of women's work, perhaps. We also notice the rough texture and the way the hemp is
coming apart a little bit compared with the pieces
of wood that seem so solid. Voiceover: Then, of
course, there's a square hole in the center. Voiceover: There is, and it
takes a minute to notice it. Voiceover: There's darkness
there and it draws our eye in. Then you want to rise up on your toes and look in a little bit. This is something a little mysterious in how is that shaped, and does the square go all the way down, and does it expand out in
that middle layer perhaps? There's something unknown and kind on unknowable about this. Voiceover: I think there's
a real sense of time because of that element that
we were talking about ... Voiceover: Of the winding, yeah. Voiceover: Yeah, so that it's a work that embodies a long duration and work and repetitive work. Voiceover: But they come together in this kind of extraordinary sense of unity. Together, the 7 by 3, this
unit, they feel so solid and so interdependent. Voiceover: But each one
is different, right? Voiceover: They are
totally different, yeah. Voiceover: The windings
are completely different. each one is different. Coloration is different. The winding is different. Voiceover: It's almost like thatch. It's this beautiful organic material and, of course, it's
gotten dirty over time. It's not precious at all, and yet it feels solid and strong. Voiceover: The making of it feels like it involved a lot of energy. Voiceover: And if one were
to ever try to unmake this it would take an extraordinarily
long period of time. Voiceover: Exactly. (jazzy music)