Willie Cole_Wind mask_assemblage with hairdryers_1991
For the decade of the 1990s, Willie Cole (born 1955) was inspired principally by the archaic cast-iron steam iron. The Newark, New Jersey-born sculptor and conceptual artist created faux-anthropological research into The People of Iron a.k.a. The Cult of The Domestic. By the end of the decade he had chronicled their journey from slavery to freedom through sculpture, printmaking – and branding (with iron, that is). The elliptical association with the fact of American slavery cannot be missed by any viewer with historical intelligence. Cole’s shoe sculptures, and those with hair dryers, bicycle parts, kitchen chairs and so forth, are visually strong and metaphorically rich – and only an African-American sculptor could use materials in this way to create something fresh and “American” yet linked to the beauty of African “traditional” art.
Willie Cole_Zebra-town Mask_a sculpture in shoes
Willie Cole_Steam Iron series
Willie Cole_Stowage_2007
Willie Cole_Pressed Iron Blossom number 3
Willie Cole_Kitchen tji wara_2004
Willie Cole_Kent tji wara_2007_sculpture made up of bicycle parts
Willie Cole_Black Worrier_sculpture constructed of women’s shoes
Willie Cole_Downtown Goddess_a sculpture in women’s shoes
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