Cantileve
1983

Beginning in 1979, Nancy Graves took up direct bronze casting—a process in which an original heat-perishable object is surrounded with a mold and then fired in a kiln, creating a negative space into which molten metal is then poured. Working at Tallix Foundry in Beacon, New York, Graves used this traditional technique to create sculptures comprised of objects and artifacts from both ancient and contemporary life, urban and agricultural societies, and the manmade and natural worlds. After casting individual objects in bronze, Graves welded them into open, skeletal structures, as in Cantileve. She subsequently added polyurethane paint as well as powdered glass and anodized aluminum to emphasize or subvert the sculpture’s forms and configuration. Here, Graves plays with the structure of a cantilever, a beam anchored on only one end—a defiance of gravity whose precarious appearance is accentuated by the casts made from raffia fans positioned at the work’s base.