METAL MANIA REDUX BY MARGOT STAGE

Opening Reception: Friday, July 17 from 5 - 7 PM

On Exhibit through October 26
The Commons
46 Bradford Street, Provincetown

margotstage.com

My passion for “road metal” defies explanation. Rusty, mangled, flattened fragments of metal catch my eye and I can’t resist picking them up for my 20+ year collection. Many are old automobile parts -- the heat shield for a catalytic converter, the curve of a brake drum. Others are worn and re-shaped beyond recognition into lacy and scratched pieces — corroded and marked by time and weather. Not every bit of metal has come from the road. I found a lovely piece in a redwood forest in California; a bright blue piece of an old school locker in a scrap yard; a majestic scalloped circle fell off the bottom of a trash can beside a high school football field. This body of work has been created entirely without welding. I use wire, pop rivets, gravity and glue to assemble the pieces into sculptural forms. The material itself — the individual pieces — dictate the direction far more than my mind does. There are often delightful surprises, and sometimes crashing frustrations that need to be solved. I also use pieces of found metal to create series of mono prints. Metal Mania Redux raises several questions. Do we recognize beauty in deterioration and decay? Can we appreciate the marks that time and nature make on materials, as well as on ourselves? Will we bear witness to obsolescence and endless change?