Nugget #3
Artist
Matthew Blake
(American, 1965 - 2008)
Artist
Enis Sefersah
(American, born 1964)
Date2005
MediumPainted steel
Dimensions63 × 66 × 144 in. (160 × 167.6 × 365.8 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Object numberUAC6724
DescriptionMatthew Blake and Enis Sefersah's Nugget #3 stretches some nine feet along the floor, its slab-like apex thrusting free of a jumble of jutting, knife-edged forms at its base. Although abstract, the sculpture's angular, asymmetric contours evoke a herculean struggle between gravity and geologic forces, or analogously, aggressive human combat. Powder-coated a pristine white to intensify its stark silhouette, Nugget #3 is one of several sculptures fabricated by the duo in response to the impact of a 1994 trek to Sarajevo, sponsored by the UN, during the Bosnian War. Struck by "undeniable similarities" between the ruins of Detroit and Sarajevo, they subsequently collaborated in Detroit on several volumetric sculptures informed by "notions that came from these destroyed, distorted places" (Sefersah).Both artists graduated from Detroit's College for Creative Studies in the late 80s, and then struck out on individual paths. Sefersah moved to New York to pursue his painting practice and sculptural interests while Blake made his home and art in Detroit. Off and on during the post-Sarajevo years, however, they occasionally paused their personal styles and worked in tandem on their Nugget series in Detroit, creating several jointly authored pieces. For his part, Blake also teamed with Motor City sculptor Chris Turner on the gigantic Millennium Bell in Detroit's Grand Circus Park commissioned by the city in 1999, and focused on a sequence of frieze-like assemblages built up from diffuse, motley assortments of recycled objects.
Text by Dennis Alan Nawrocki
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