Transparent Wishes
Lorna Simpson
American, born 1960
Details
Title
Transparent Wishes
Artist/Maker
Lorna Simpson (American, born 1960)
Date
1993
Medium
Glass
Dimensions
114 x 17 inches
Credit
Purchase for the Elson Collection of Contemporary Glass
Accession #
1995.34
Location
Currently not on view
Transparent Wishes consists of 100 cast glass wishbones cascading down the wall bearing a list of words: “after,” “remember,” “shift,” “forget,” “indulge,” “last,” “remedy,” “vary,” “recast,” “obliterate,” “deviate,” “reverse,” and “more time.” Without context, the meaning of these words is left up to the viewer. Together they comprise a list which is essentially a tool for categorization, classification and control. Thus, their lack of specificity here calls into question the power relationship – what feminist theorist and author Bell Hooks calls the “culture of domination” - between the describer and that object or person being described.
Image Copyright
© Lorna Simpson