back to Rainbow

This piece was first shown at 55 Mercer as the only piece in a one-man show.

Two wax-impregnated issues of the "Buy Lines" newspaper hang over the forward edge of two 17 1/2´ lengths of steel, bent in a V, mimicking a newspapers fold, placed end to end, opening upward, positioned horizontally at eye level, and fastened flatly against the wall with 1/2" lag screws at 4´ intervals. A fragile, translucent paper skin rests lightly on the forward edge allowing a sliver of the black steel to show behind it.

For many years before making this piece I would read "Buy Lines" in search of bargains and just for the idle pleasure of it. The printed re-sale ads for anything and everything, were published in words just as the ads were called in. I found it read as a kind of unintended concrete poetry often having a uniquely plaintiff air. Wishes and dreams, imaginings from both sides filled the pages, so many rainbows chased that now, as lives roll by, are being again re-sold.

Positioning this icon of transience, flux and vulnerability against a horizon of common steel resonates for me, as many stories of our lives do.