Lucy Congdon Hanson: Serve

Artist's Statement:

Serve is a 14-foot hand-fabricated stainless steel fork. This sculpture takes the ideas surrounding the spoons and brings them to the forefront of my consciousness. Serve represents the silent, but giant, role of women in households over generations - lovingly nurturing their families. Serve is about power, but the protective kind. This large-scale fork also becomes other things – the nude figure, or a flamenco dancer. Gradually it leaves me, the artist – it becomes alive and starts to move on its own. To me, a finished piece is not just an object, but an intuitive interpretation, a recorded experience, a loved upon object that has been turned in your hand a thousand times. And, maybe I have the ‘BIG disease’ in my art-making. Making something so large seems like taking a bravery test. It’s also exhilarating to me – like skiing downhill with your mouth open – feeling the adrenaline. It is also about finding my own voice, seeking a seat at a different table – dinner talk with the art world.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website