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    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019

    Melvin Edwards

    Not So Easy, 2019
    Welded steel in 2 parts
    40 1/4 x 16 3/4 x 9 3/4 in overall (102.2 x 42.5 x 24.8 cm overall)
    ME878

    Further images

    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 6 ) Melvin Edwards, Not So Easy, 2019
    Balanced on an I-beam pedestal, Not So Easy (2019) features chain draped over a steel support. Foregrounding Melvin Edwards’s interest in what the curator Catherine Craft “the multivalent practical possibilities...
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    Balanced on an I-beam pedestal, Not So Easy (2019) features chain draped over a steel support. Foregrounding Melvin Edwards’s interest in what the curator Catherine Craft “the multivalent practical possibilities of … materials,” the work capitalizes on the conceptual implications of using chain as a sculptural element. Recalling the physical bondage of slavery, for Edwards, chains also honor his African blacksmith forebears and are a symbol of connection and continuing tradition. As Edwards expands, “Like a poet with words, you know more than one notion. The most common word in poetry is love. Chain is just a material in and of itself. The reason it was invented was to make a better rope. It was not invented for slavery or moving cars, though it was used at different times for each. It's the context of things, the environment which it was in, that has to be taken into account.”
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    Exhibitions

    2020: Melvin Edwards, Museu Nacional da República, Brasilia, Brazil, Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil
    2019: Melvin Edwards, Museu da Republica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM), Salvador, Brazil
    2019: Melvin Edwards, Auroras, São Paulo, Brazil
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