From All Sides

From All Sides is an installation piece constructed out of a 240 pound anvil and approximately 4.5 miles of sisal twine.  The twine remains a single continuous strand that attached to the walls of the gallery at every inch of a unified height.  The strand passes through a ring that is tied to the top of the anvil every time it crosses the room to go to the next hook.  This creates an implied shape and also gives the impression of the anvil’s weight pulling down the walls while the walls struggle to lift the anvil.

The installation was first created in the Teaching Gallery at the University of Colorado Denver’s Arts Building and was later also shown at the Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts’ Chapel of Art.  It was intended to illustrate the feeling of being overwhelmed but in reality, it became a therapeutic and tranquil space.  The organic odor of the natural fiber twine combined with the way the structure filters and softens the light, invites the viewer into the space and inspires quiet reflection.