tin_standard | 2000 |
MFA Thesis
Cranbrook Museum of Art
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Views show 10 x 12 x 16 ft. interior. Primary elements: Suspended 8 ft. x 16 ft. x 5 in. ceiling of 50, 18 x 18 in. vacuformed styrene tiles with 50 varied house latex finishes. Frame is constructed of 18 gauge steel box tube and tensioned metal strap. 3 in 1 school desk, (foreground); 32 x 96 x 32 in., constructed from salvaged desk frames and phenolin-coated 3/4" plywood, [used in concrete form making]. Seats are upholstered with lane marking (coarse grip) tape. Convertible table-chair, (rear); 56 x 56 x 18 in., is constructed of salvaged furniture parts and mixed-grade woods; maple, oak, spruce, poplar, and phenolin-coated plywood. Drawer below chair seat holds three framed 3 x 2 in. images of a man on his knees having an 18 x 18 in. sheet of steel pounded over his face. Wall images, (left); are three 18 x 18 in. liquid emulsion images of stamped tin ceiling tiles printed on 28 gauge sheet steel -- each image reveals galvanizing, brush and roller marks, silver grain, screen bands, and pixels. Image frame is rubber-lined, phenolin-coated plywood. Additional elements: screwdrivers as tensioning devices, shims, a paper matchbook, drag marks, and task lighting.
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Tin is more precious than gold
The perversion of knowledge through time
The perversion of values through time
The fallacy of accepted standards or truths as unaffected inheritance
The courtroom – the classroom – the king’s court
A transplanted ceiling;
relief tiles in 50 hues and finishes,
ranging from brilliant bar gold
to grungy street dollar
A convolution of the stamped tin ceiling
and the tintype
Tin as a democratizing agent
Daguerreotype to tintype /
plaster relief ceiling to tin relief ceiling.
Neither tintypes nor tin ceilings typically contained tin.
Subsequently, there's no tin here either.
Here, architectural element becomes institutional portrait (leader)
Institutional portrait (our hero, our leader) becomes architectural element
Tin is all things cheap and empty,
yet it claims structure; tin can.
But tin is just a coating,
(like a photographic emulsion)
that we believe contains.
Tin is just a coating, we believe it contains.
The secret knowledge beneath the seat
More sitter's secret knowledge