The Pharaoh’s Forearm and The King’s Foot
Typical Canadian linear and volume measuring implements have Imperial and Metric calibrations. ForThe Pharaoh’s Forearm and The King’s Foot, I focus directly on standardized systems measures. Seven sculptures demonstrates aspects of measurement, sometimes by matching Imperial mensuration with Masonite cutouts. The intricate packaging constructed for the sculptures, and a 60-page illustrated booklet that outlines details for installing, striking, and packing the work, are installation components.
Sculptures
The sculptures were made primarily from upcycled materials found in the studio/garage and relate to ideas about waste and property in other projects such as Tender Loving Stuff and Coordinates of Home. The work arose from my desire to stop accumulating stuff and devise uses for outmoded products.
Curiosity about the sources of words led to historical research on systems of weights and measures. Why a yardstick, whose foot? Throughout time and in different places, people measured stuff with their bodies.
Standardized units have been used to calculate values of objects, mark territory, compare people and reinforce a monarch’s power. The sculptures are titled to convey how numerical standards tie into authority and commerce. The Tailor’s Nose compares the length of my arm with a yardstick to show how a tailor would calculate a yard of fabric from the tip of the nose to fingertips holding the other end of the cloth. Pace Like an Egyptian estimates a stride. The ancient Egyptian cubit is believed to equal the length of one Pharaoh’s forearm. The English foot was longer than the French one, leading to the myth of Napoleon’s shortness. My foot is even shorter, and all my body parts are about eighty percent smaller than related Imperial dimensions.
Packages
The sculptures’ packaging was created from discarded packing materials and derived from designs by companies that utilize assemblage, disposability, and attractive containers to sell products. The inclusion of the packaging and instructions in the exhibition underscores the sculpture’s materiality: when the show is struck, artwork must go somewhere.
Connections with my other work were revealed slowly as as work developed. Previous numerical self-portraits included volume gauges of body detritus and pelt-like maps made by measuring every circumference of my body at one inch intervals.Tender Loving Stuff (TLS), a social media series about respecting inanimate objects, is rooted in the same emotional turmoil of family hoarding behaviours and dismay over the techno-fossil layer in landfills, as The Pharaoh’s Forearm and the King’s Foot.
Instructions
The complex installation is made simple by following the instructions. The booklet is divided into sections for unpacking, installing and striking the exhibition for repacking. The sections are subdivided by sculpture. Tools and parts needed for tasks are listed at the beginning of the sections and subsection
The Pharaoh’s Forearm and the King’s Foot materialized over more than a decade without preliminary designs for individual pieces or plans to make a series. The packaging and instructions developed from pragmatic exhibiting concerns. In retrospect, themes seemed to have proceeded from enchantment with the array of gadgets made possible by precision measurement used mass production and my preoccupation with numbers because of dyslexia.
