Monday, September 18, 2006




Todays excursion into the dark and twisted realm of Harv-art is kind of an experiment in lots of different textures achievable with old recycled can metal. Using a standard module, I simply did horrible things to these poor little metal objects. Some were torched, others were pounded with hammer on the anvil, some were pounded and then torched, some were scarred with muriatic acid, some were scoured with steel wool, some were pounded onto a wood rasp. Grouping them in a grid pattern, I gleefully display their suffering, pocked surfaces.

Seriously, because the aluminum is so nice and soft and at the same time pretty thin, it is fairly easy to coax visually interesting textures from them. Though not visible in this photo for some unknown reason, I have also used pastel to provide rays of rubbed texture radiating out of the gaps between the panels.

Do not mourn for these aluminum bits, though they have endured all manner of rough treatment, they are still accorded a place of honor upon my mantel shelf.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

harv, what is muriatic acid?

Anonymous said...

i am liking this one... i would love to the see the nine square grid of squares or a version of this that is four feet tall and about 8 feet wide on the black background.

Harvey said...

Muriatic acid is the acid most often used for cleaning brick masonry walls. It is simply hydrochloric acid in water.

Harvey said...

4' x 8' might take a long time as the aluminum from the cans is fairly small. I should be doing larger pieces though, so thanks for the encouragement.

Anonymous said...

I think the large version of this would be a great idea as well. Perhaps you could use your own body as a substrate for creating various textures on the aluminum, so the artwork would reflect not only the suffering of the aluminum, as you so cavalierly stated, but your own suffering as well, which is even more appropriate. The heating of the aluminum with a torch while it is against your flesh would result in an artwork that truly reflects the suffering that you endure on a daily basis, as anyone who knows you is aware. I would be happy to wield the torch for those hard to reach areas, if you thought it would be useful to your creative process.