Artwork Details
- Title
- Box of Falling Stars
- Artist
- Date
- 1984
- Location
- Dimensions
- Approx. 108 × 68 × 70 in. (274.3 × 172.7 × 177.8 cm)
- Copyright
- © 1984, Lenore G. Tawney
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
- Mediums Description
- cotton canvas, linen thread, acrylic paint, and ink
- Classifications
- Object Number
- 1992.83
Artwork Description
The truest thing in my life was my work. I wanted my life to be as true.
--Lenore Tawney
Box of Falling Stars represents the culmination of Lenore Tawney's journey to give shape to light. The work is an example of the artist's Clouds, a series of ethereal sculptures conceived in 1977. Tawney called Clouds "vertical weavings in volume" and "weavings without weaving" because they were not made on a loom, the device used to hold threads to weave into fabric. First, she drew a grid on the canvas support. At every intersection, she pulled a single linen thread through the canvas and secured it with a knot. She repeated this simple task thousands of times. The tedious process yields a cosmic effect. The fall of shimmering threads emulates the ways in which clouds (and stars) hold and diffract light. Box of Falling Stars heightens perception and mindfulness to the elements of life that often go unseen.
Exhibitions
