 Nancy Reddin Keinholz (American, born 1943)
Edward Kienholz (American, 1927 - 1994) The White Cup, 1984-85 Mixed-media (found objects, metal, plaster casts, paint and
polyester resin) Gift of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2011,
and gift of Laila Twigg-Smith (TCM.1996.52) Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz’s mixed-media assemblages
and installations expose the hard and unpleasant sides of society
and humanity. They selected their materials from thrift stores,
garage sales, and city streets, attracted by objects’ patinas of use
and implied history, which give their works a powerful and
unmitigated sense of immediacy and poignancy. The White Cup demonstrates the Kienholzes’ interest in social
issues such as poverty and racism. The two figures incorporate
black and white photographs of an African-American male
applied to elements which revolve to reveal polished mirror-like
surfaces that reflect back the image of the viewer, an
admonishment that we should imagine ourselves in the person of
these men, or perhaps suggesting that we are all essentially the
same—human beings. The seated figure holds a mirror that
doesn’t give back a reflection, symbolizing the loss of identity that
society has enforced on him. The standing figure holds a ceramic
cup, which in its color and broken state, may signify the failure of
white American society with respect to the plight of many African
Americans, as well as the hopelessness of the man’s situation (it
is neither half full nor half empty; it can hold nothing). |