spoons – American Disasters

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The piece that most captivated me were the two spoons with tornadoes depicted in the spoon itself using silverpoint to create the metallic lines. This kind of art especially intrigues me because it’s like the spoon died and the image depicted was its last memory that’s been frozen in time, almost like a photograph. If that makes sense. The best comparison I can think of comes from the nuclear blasts at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. There were reports of shadows being printed on the walls from the power of the bomb. I’m not sure how this is physically possible (remember, I’m a history major), but that is what I thought of when I saw those spoons on display.

Tornadoes are incredibly devastating storms that occur mostly in the United States. These acts of nature are rotating, funnel shaped clouds that extend from a thunderstorm to the ground. Tornadoes do not occur with every powerful thunderstorm, however. When a warm front meets a cold front, the warm air tries to rise, but clashes with the cold air that acts as a blanket. As the warm air tries to push up in between the cold air, sometimes a funnel occurs causing a twister. When the twister reaches the ground, it becomes a tornado. Tornadoes most often occur in “tornado alley,” which is a flat stretch of land from western Texas to North Dakota. This area is particularly susceptible to tornadoes because “the dry polar air from Canada meets the warm, moist tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico.” Typically, tornadoes travel from southwest to northeast, but can move in any direction including backwards. These storms are incredibly powerful as winds can reach up to 300 mph (highest recorded); however, they rarely last longer than ten minutes and leave skinny damage paths. On rare occasions, tornado damage paths have been recorded in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long. For example, the Tri-State Tornado recorded a path of 219 miles, a duration of 3.5 hours, and a forward traveling speed of 73 mph. Yay for fun facts!

How does all of this USEFUL information connect to these spoons? So, like any good historian, I did a little background into the author of this piece. Her name is Kate Kretz and she makes some incredible pieces. As I stated earlier, she uses a technique called silverpoint, which according to her website, is “an archaic drawing technique that leaves fine, ghostly metallic lines on a gessoed surface.” So cool. What’s even cooler is her interpretation of the work. Now, bear with me as I attempt to explain. She doesn’t necessarily care about the act of nature (tornado, storm, or other disruptive force); she cares that they represent disturbances in family life. Although her website doesn’t explicitly make this claim, I think she uses household items to symbolize an aspect of the family. Generally speaking, a spoon is more representative of family than a landscape or fencepost. So, she creates these incredibly detailed storm depictions out of household items to represent some family trouble. Granted, I would only appreciate the incredible talent behind the art, but now that I know her backstory, the piece is that much more powerful.

And of course:

First quote: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-tornados

Second quote: http://katekretz.blogspot.com/

Tempest IV and V are magnificent pieces of art by D.C. area artist Kate Kretz that focus on the chaos and doom associated with extreme weather. The pieces were created by etching images of extreme weather, in this case images of tornados onto antique spoons. Kretz’s art often depicts scenes of doom as she is inspired by “nightmares featuring weather imagery specifically several tornadoes hovering on the horizon.” Kretz did not have a specific tornado in mind, but rather used what she knew about tornados and her vivid nightmares when making the piece.

While both Tempest IV and V depict tornados, they focus on different aspects of tornados and highlight different emotions. Tempest IV shows a long, thin tornado shooting out from abstract clouds and rapidly approaching a rural farm. The tornado is almost elegant and in many ways the scene is calm. The farm is still tranquil and there is a sense that the inhabitants have no idea of the doom to come. The abstract clouds provide a feeling of foreboding and the elegant tornado is the manifestation of this waiting evil. Tempest V shows a much different scene. The tornado in this piece is fat and not clearly defined, blending in to the clouds above. The scene is also set in an urban area, and the main feature of the piece is the tornado tearing apart the electric lines. Tempest V has contact between the disaster and humanity and there is no sense of foreboding because the doom has arrived, but in its place are chaos and destruction. It is interesting to note that the “canvas” of the pieces are antique spoons which provides interesting depth to the pieces. The curvature of the bowl of the spoon makes the image have motion and feel dynamic. The color of the spoons also has a great affect on the pieces because the entire image is just different shades of grey. This adds to the negative emotions of the image and makes both images feel as if everything is tarnished and doomed.

Kretz says that extreme weather events have come to symbolize in her mind unpredictability and anxiety associated with dysfunctional family relationships. This notion comes through strongly in her pieces, but as a historian looking through the lens of disaster to me the piece represents much more. This piece is a visual representation of how disaster is a human social construction. Tempest IV shows a tornado in the distance and the main emotion that the piece evokes is a sense of foreboding. There is no anxiety about what the tornado is doing to the non-human sphere, but only a sense of foreboding about what will happen when the tornado makes contact with the human world. In Tempest V the tornado is presently destroying the human world and their is a vivid sense of present evil. Disasters are not a disaster unless they come into contact with the human sphere, it is our reaction to them that makes them a disaster, and thus the whole idea of disaster is a social construction.

The piece also can be used to make a more tornado specific argument: even though tornados occur on a much smaller scale than many other disasters, their devastation is so enormous and all encompassing to those affected that tornados should be a high priority in disaster relief efforts. Tempest V shows how small of an area that a tornado effects, part of a town and its power lines are being completely destroyed while the other half of town is unaffected. It also shows the complete and total nature of the destruction cause by the area affected by the tornado and all the pain and anxieties that those affected feel.

Overall, Tempest IV and V are fascinating pieces that are interesting and provocative to view.

Tag: spoons

Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore!

Doom and Spoons: An Analysis of Tempest IV and V