Delta Blues

Artist Alison Saar (American, born 1956)

Date1998

MediumHammered copper with nails over wood

DimensionsOverall: 38 x 18 x 25in. (96.5 x 45.7 x 63.5cm)

ClassificationsART

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number2002.24

On View

Not on view

Collections

Sculpture

Label TextIn Delta Blues, Alison Saar creates a kneeling figure whose head tilts to one side and whose hair wraps around her body. The sculpture evokes associations to the Judeo-Christian genesis story of Eve being seduced by Satan, in the form of a snake. It can be understood metaphorically, too, as other kinds of seductions; Saar notes, "your hair is like a serpent that's drawing you into trouble and pulling you different ways and guiding in different directions." She extends the metaphor, though, to include a river, a symbol of fluidity and of escape. The woman's tilted head further suggests she is in a dreamlike state, a reverie, about which Saar has said, "it's like she's twined up and caught up in this…this insulated world of her very own…I always see [the turned head] as being between two worlds, that you're not here but haven't trespassed into the other thing." MEM