museumuesum:

TARA DONOVAN

photograph by John Kennard

Untitled (Pins), 2004, Nickel-Plated Steel Pins

Untitled (Toothpicks), 1996, Toothpicks

Untitled (Glass), Shattered Tempered Glass, 2004

 For one of her earliest exhibited works, Donovan sprinkled wooden toothpicks into a four-sided mold, then took the sides away. Without any kind of adhesive, the picks held themselves precariously in place as a three-foot cube. (Because to move the piece means to destroy it, it has to be reproduced from scratch every time it’s exhibited.) For a similar sculpture she performs the same action with straight pins. For another piece she stacks sheets of glass into a cube formation then taps each sheet at the corner so that it shatters, to produce a “solid” cube of broken glass.