TOMFRIEDMAN(b. 1965)Untitled.Plastic drinking straws.78 ¾ x 59 x 29 ½ in. (200 x 149.9 x 74.9 cm).Executed in 2004.As with his earlier works Tom Friedman's more current creations keep true to his artistic practice of employing the banal and reconfiguring them into objects that confound the senses, redefining the way in which we classify art.

"The problem of singularity is at the center of friedman's explorations, and he approaches his dilemma with all the intellectual rigor of a philosopher. But this is not the brand of singularity familiar to us through, say the inimitable line of a Matisse, or the honed audacity of a Koons. There is certainly a key role within the framework of Friedman's art for the idiosyncrasies of individual temperament, but by throroughly disavowing the romantic model of genius' touch, he gently nudges us toward a more intimate inspection of the world around us" (D. Cameron "Tom Friedman: Same and Different", Parkett, Zurich, No. 64, 2002).

In the present lot, Friedman has taken the common drinking straw and elevated it from a common disposable object to one of fine art. With his trademark touch of whimsy and tongue-in-cheek humor he has constructed a sculpture that is at once base in its comedic references but at the same time possessing a complexity of form and design that allows one to overlook the subject matter. The sharp linearity and random arrangement of the straws comprising the figure instill in the work, qualities akin to those of a line drawing. It is as if Friedman has projected a drawing in three dimensions with the drinking straw.

"This singularly unique approach to constructing objects has become a mainstay in Tom Friedman's oeuvre. If Friedman has opened up both the conceptual and material possibilities for sculpture in our time, he has done so in a way that leaves him ironically without peers" (ibid.).

"TomFriedman's sculptural works radically modify our view of things….made of mundane, frequently expendable materials. They evoke meditation on the interconnectedness of natural and industrial worlds, even suggesting that the human mind body and inanimate things are all involved in the same process of meditation" (M. Matsui, "Mapping Your World: Tom Friedman's Flexible sculpture", Parkett, Zurich, No. 64, 2002).