Deferred
Imagine Calder’s Untitled 1976 piece, the sprawling wire and metal, the organic forms, the balance of geometry alive. Now replace the petals, the wings, and the balance with coffins and dead weight. Just as Calder died before naming this piece we must kill it now that its alive. Like some dread deferred, maybe it will just sag like a heavy load.
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
The original is light, mine is sagging and sorrowed. It reimagines the gravity of America's past decisions and the history we sculpted.
“Above all, art should be fun.”