Fading Cloth

Fading Cloth is made from discarded liquor bottle tops that were found by the artist and then flattened and stitched together with copper wire. Though crafted from metals, this sculptural work suggests a large textile. Since Europeans traded liquor and textiles for gold and slaves in West Africa, Fading Cloth, which simulates fabric with packaging from liquor bottles, weaves together a range of social, political, historical, and visual references specific to that region.  The artist describes his technique as subverting "the stereotype of metal as a stiff, rigid medium and rather showing it as a soft, pliable, almost sensuous material capable of attaining immense dimensions and being adapted to specific spaces."