Tyranny of the Shoulds

Pat Hickman, Tyranny of the Shoulds, 1989, hog casings, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Theodore Cohen in memory of his mother and her sisters: Rose Melmon Cohen, Blanche Melmon, Mary Melmon Greenberg and Fanny Melmon Liberman, 1998.122.9, © 1989, Patricia L. Hickman
Copied Pat Hickman, Tyranny of the Shoulds, 1989, hog casings, approx. 7 1215 1415 in. (19.138.838.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Theodore Cohen in memory of his mother and her sisters: Rose Melmon Cohen, Blanche Melmon, Mary Melmon Greenberg and Fanny Melmon Liberman, 1998.122.9, © 1989, Patricia L. Hickman

Artwork Details

Title
Tyranny of the Shoulds
Artist
Date
1989
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
approx. 7 1215 1415 in. (19.138.838.1 cm)
Copyright
© 1989, Patricia L. Hickman
Credit Line
Gift of Theodore Cohen in memory of his mother and her sisters: Rose Melmon Cohen, Blanche Melmon, Mary Melmon Greenberg and Fanny Melmon Liberman
Mediums
Mediums Description
hog casings
Classifications
Object Number
1998.122.9

Artwork Description

This work is crafted with hog casings. The artist, Pat Hickman, feels the material expresses the fragility of life. She wrote “should” over and over with a looping technique typically used to make a knotless net. Tyranny of the Shoulds contains the agony of regret as well as an opportunity to learn from it and move forward with new purpose.


This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World, 2022

Luce Center Label

Tyranny of the Shoulds, like other pieces by Pat Hickman, expresses the artist's sense of the fragility of life. The dried hog casings shaped into a sculpture evoke rigor mortis, the stiffening of the body after death. At the same time, however, the material suggests a transformation from one kind of life to another. The title may well refer to our tendency to think of the things we "should" have done with and for the people we loved. The circling, interwoven strands of gut express tangled feelings of regret, but also suggest a circle of mutual support such as Hickman knew during her years spent working with other fiber artists in the Bay Area.