Lonnie Holley.
A Question Of The Foundations.
2004.
Signed and dated.
Cement, rebar, chain and other mixed media construction.
Excellent condition.
12" w x 25.5" h.
Est. $1,000-3,000.
Ship: $85

As in much of Holley's works, this sculpture uses cast-off materials to confront and challenge our everyday vision of things. Talking about the piece, the artist mused about the problematic ideas that undergird our larger social world, a world built precariously upon the debris of conflict, injustice, and dehumanizing conceptions of each other. Here, Holley creates a metaphor for the shaky social principles on which we unconsciously construct our lives. Like a visual pun, it is fashioned from discarded building materials, including a tangle of cast-off rebar and a slab of concrete wall that tries to balance itself on the piece's twisted metal form. Suspended from the piece is a large hook of the type used to hoist construction materials, or conversely, to wield the wrecking ball that destroys the old edifices that no longer serve our higher interests and understandings. Mounted on a clump of concrete, the entire construction appears unstable and perilous, much like the foundational beliefs that fail to support the architecture of our true humanity.
It asks us to question the real underlying structure of our beliefs and practices by showing us what remains when the outer walls and the surface of things fall away.