As I walked around MOCA, I suddenly saw a piece of art that caused me to jump back with shock. Linda Benglis’ work, For Bob, slightly resembles a piece of coral with its red, red-orange, and yellowish white tints and shades. It is long and narrow and is made from wax on wood and masonite. At first, I was slightly repulsed by the work because looked creepy because it reminded me of vertebrae or something eerie and bloody. The sides looked as if the wax was still dripping down to the side of the work and looked like dripping blood from the reddish shades.
These were my first impressions of the work, which were a bit of disgust. However, upon further inspection my discomfort became interest, I wanted to inspect how Benglis made her work. The wax does not look like it was cut but instead dripped and almost piled on in some way. There are so many small parts that make up the entire work, that it looks time consuming and impressive. Every piece of wax looks like it is growing out from the base like a mushroom while the sides are dripping, suggesting a sense of movement in the entire piece. Also, the entire time my eyes moved up and down and back again.
This piece inspires a lot of curiosity. She uses wax as her means of expression, which I personally thought was very different and new. It made me excited to see that she could use a material so creatively but I also wondered if there was any subject. The title seems to suggest that the work is for a person, but there is no explanation why this fits as a personal gift. Looking at this work makes me actually extremely excited because when I examined it multiple times, I noticed the details that went into making it. I first noticed the interesting material used, then the different shades, then the construction. Linda Benglis successfully capture’s a viewer’s attention by making them wonder how and why she made this work.
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