Drawing for 'Tank'

Date1989

MediumMixed media

Dimensions65.5 x 123.8 x 22.5 cm

ClassificationsMixed Media

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased, 1997. © The Estate of Nancy Reddin Kienholz. Courtesy of L.A. Louver, Venice, CA.

Object number1918

DescriptionSince the 1950s Edward Kienholz used junk to construct compelling, often grotesque, assemblages that comment satirically on the social, political and religious hypocrisy of American life in particular. Working in collaboration with Nancy Reddin since 1972, The Merry-Go-World Or Begat By Chance and the Wonder Horse Trigger was one of the couple's last collaborations before Edward Kienholzs' death in1994.

Drawing from "Tank" is one of the related accompanying tableaux for the life size walk-in carousel Merry-Go-World exhibited at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane in 1996. Its subject- matter is life's lottery and the unequal distribution of the world's wealth. The viewer had to spin a wheel of fortune to gain admission. Inside were eight possible life scenarios, one of which lit up when the wheel ceased to spin. Drawing from Tank relates to one of the eight scenes and is a wall mounted assemblage of photographs and found objects that tells the story of a young black girl in Houston called Tank who lived with her mother in a "shotgun" house - so-called because of the double barrel effect of porch and window. The disorderly kitchen sink assemblage overseen by a mini wheel of fortune boding a variety of potential outcomes for the young girl, from "career" and "success" to "welfare" and "dropout".

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