Peter Dellert: Big Choices
What you see on the museum’s front lawn are part of a series of sculptures that enlarge vintage hand tools up to human scale. These works are not unlike the powerful and visionary works of Claes Oldenburg, although I would shy away from the comparison. While his works were monumental and iconic, my sculptures are addressing the loss of hand tools, hand tool use, and hand tool practitioners in contemporary Western culture.
I have enlarged these forgotten or taken-for-granted tools (Spanner and Plugged In, respectively) to make several points. We are a “plugged in” society, and yet we are unaware of how dangerous and complicated our relationship to technology is becoming. We have given in to daily device use, and the toll on our psyches and our children’s health is becoming apparent. That most of us cannot fix a flat tire, even on a bicycle, is sad.
I find the overwhelming use of power tools appalling, even after spending 40 years as a carpenter, cabinetmaker, and furniture maker. Blowing dirt and dust off our driveways and sidewalks with a power blower is both ridiculous and egregious. Why should our neighbors suffer our dust raising, let alone the noise pollution? Have we forgotten how to use a rake, or a broom?
In my 20s, I briefly studied Zen in the context of Eastern religion and culture. When invoking “chop wood, carry water,” my teachers were on to something. We don’t all have to hang our clothes on a clothesline to dry, or use push mowers, or have a compost pile, or ride a bicycle, or grow our own food. But recognizing that these things matter seems critical. AI will not solve all or even most of our problems. We are quickly becoming more isolated, more intolerant, more partisan, and more insensitive to those around us. We have forgotten how to “be.”
A lot of that is because we have forgotten how to “do.” We have lost respect for the doers, the makers, the laborers, the people who build the things we use every day. Increasingly, young people want a job in which they don’t have to get their hands dirty. With my tool sculptures, I am offering a suggestion to those who have forgotten how to “do.” Next time a project looms, consider your own manual alternatives to getting the work done by someone else. Acquire tools, learn how to use them, and begin to appreciate the sense of accomplishment that comes with doing a job with your own hands.
— Peter Dellert
