Nailed Knowledge Fetishes

Nkisi N'Kondi is a Congo phrase for a power figure, the African name for sculptural artworks westerners call " nail fetishes". These generally are small statues of human form, containing a spiritual energy bundle secreted in a cavity or container in the statue. The energy is activated when the wooden statue is ritually pierced by a nail or other sharp object.

N'Kissi N'Kondi Black		Nkisi N'Kondi Red	Clamped Book				Chained Books	Reassembled Federal Rules	Two Book Stack (2001)

As I created the LAW sculpture in 1992 thru 1994, I was making objects from books. I began by burning, chopping, soaking, piercing, chaining and binding law books, history books, dictionaries, encyclopedias and scientific reference books to transform them beyond their mundane existence. Like their African namesakes, the books incorporate the energy into their form which alters their meaning.  Decades later, I discovered the unsettling fact that been unduly influenced by the artwork of Barton Benes. 

Intellectual Power Tools

Hacker's Ax Orange (1995) Epoxy painted keyboard and cord with ax handle, Selene and Rene Vega collection

 The Intellectual Power Tools started when I attached a shovel handle to a previously epoxied book. I attached ax, hammer and pick handles to other objects of intellectual activity such as phones, typewriters, cameras and computer keyboards. The gestural communication from the tool handle to the viewer's body couple with the conceptual meaning of the phone, book, or keyboard "tool head". Heavy layers of paint emotionally color and elevate the object from material portmanteau to immaterial symbol.

Crossed Phone Axes (1995) 32 x 30 1/2 x 5 1/2 Wood axe handles, books, epoxy

Bureaucrat's Ax (1995)
30 x 3 1/4 x 6
Wood handle, rubber stamp, rubber finger caps, counter, epoxy

more Intellectual Tools

Airborn Expletive Evidence of concern.	Legal Fetishes Juris Voodoo.	Time Fetishes Is time like color, strictly a  psychological sensation?