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Featured objects are generated almost
entirely from typewriter keys and parts, including the small "birds". They are intended to be both whimsical and serious. Serious, for the pieces to be a metaphor for continuing, if anachronistically, and aesthetically, an expression of a by-gone era (that is, typewriter keys still communicating). |
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 BIRD #1095 Click to see more... |
Homage to the Typewriter
Underwood, L.C.Smith, Royal, Remington --
these were the names of the real authors of the information age.
They made it possible to produce a unique printed page (and one
that was legible) at the rate of sixty and more original words
per minute. This was a feat unparalleled in human history and
resulted in a leap in civilized communication, documentation
and creativity. Imagine the debt of gratitude owed to these firms
by our vast bureaucracies. The pieces in this collection were generated almost entirely from typewriter keys and parts. Even the small "birds" are part of the mechanism of one manufacturer. With the passing of the typewriter also gone are thousands of miles of black and red ink typewriter ribbon. Piles of eraser dust remain in nearly all machines as testament to many a typo. On all surfaces there is an encrustation of a tenacious, greasy dirt -- the remains of our recent history, certainly of twentieth century literature, and perhaps even vestiges of the 1918 flu epidemic. |
9-to-5 #1125 Click to see more... |
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MAN ALONE #1015 Click to see more...
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Typewriters were produced by the millions between the turn of the century until recently. To those of us who grew up with them, typewriters were as much a permanent part of life as the refrigerator or the automobile. Where did they all go? Just yesterday typewriters were everywhere, it seemed, but now they are rare. Andy Rooney used to have an old one visible behind him as he sits on "Sixty Minutes" editorializing and being cynical about modern life. Flea markets are a source. And antique stores -- under a counter, maybe squirreled away in a corner. These now-archaic, anachronistic machines are very much small-scale monuments to the industrial age. The demise of the typewriter may have signaled the end of that era. Certainly this is the case if one uses the value of an old typewriter as a gauge. They are worth almost nothing now, even in perfect working order. Such machines, if produced today, would cost thousands of dollars because they consist of so many hundreds of uniquely shaped, interconnected, moving parts. |
SOLSTICE TREE #12014
(Holds 18 candles) Click to see more... |
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Idea #1135 This piece represents
a metaphor of the typewriter's contribution to communication
-- now through visual implication instead of words.
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A typical typewriter has about 50 keys, each a unique shape or length, connected through an ingenious linkage to a striking part which produces an image on paper. In addition, there are hundreds of other parts, sub-assemblies, clever mechanisms, mostly held together with screws set into threaded holes. Each manufacturer designed and built typewriters slightly differently; multitudes of patents printed on the machines attest to creative protection and subtle differences. One can imagine that the fine machine technology and engineered tolerances were developed by Remington for the design and manufacture of handguns and rifles. Perhaps the typewriter is one of the first examples of beating industrial age swords into plowshares. |
 CANDELABRA #12074 Click to see more... |
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 3-BIRD SEE-SAW #12124  CANDLESTICK #12044 |
Most of a
typewriter's mechanism is constructed of stamped, painted steel.
All of the parts used in the sculpture are held together with
soldered joints. Soldering requires cleaning of the parts to
bare metal with a rotary wire brush. A propane torch is used
for soldering joints and various heat-sink techniques must be
employed where soldered joints are close together. Aesthetically, an attempt is made to re-use original parts with as little change as possible, with the exception of bending and shaping, which is, after all, what we do with language.  BIRD FROND TRIO
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 PAINTBRUSH #1045
This was made from what remained of a paintbrush that washed up on the beach. |
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