More than 15,000 fingers lie on the Maryland Art Place?s gallery floor. They represent the number of fingers laborers lost annually during the mid-to-late ?80s, Christopher Whittey said.
Whittey spent more than a year casting, sanding and refining the plaster objects one at a time for One Hand Washes the Other. The poignant artwork is on display in Time and Measure, a three-man multimedia exhibit.
The fingers, just one aspect of One Hand Washes the Other, evolved from Whittey?s focus on feminism and what being masculine means in general as well as within the workplace.
“This flowed into a more specific interest with working-class issues and working-class bodies. I recalled the summer months when my father?s left arm was noticeably darker than his right because he was a truck driver,” Whittey said.
Whittey said the uneven skin tone lead to his investigation of asymmetrical bodies caused by “permanent labor marks” or the “industrial tattoo.”
The wall panels accompanying the finger installation contribute to the idea that the laborer is viewed as a commodity, Whittey said. “I?ve been told the finger piece is pretty impressive and very beautiful. Hopefully that beauty draws people in, and as they get a sense of it, it pushes them to back away to begin to think about the function of art.”
With Whittey?s works are Kevin Wolff?s video and sound installations and R.L. Croft?s large, colorful metal sculptures constructed from new and used materials.
Three-dimensional works made from “objects of all kinds found in scrap yards and thrift and hardware stores” allow Croft to avoid making pieces he?s seen before. “These materials give me more of an arena than painting. Yet, most of my influences are painters,” Croft said.
IF YOU GO
Time and Measure
» Venue: Maryland Art Place, 8 Market Place, Baltimore
» Gallery Talk: 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30
» When: Through Dec. 22, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
» Info: 410-962-8565
