Two Constructions of the Philadelphia wireman

(Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia)

In 1982 a passerby walking along a side street in Philadelphia discovered a box of highly unusual objects abandoned for trash: approximately 600 unique assemblages of bits of street debris-bottle caps, nails, cigarette packages, cellophane, pop can tabs-meticulously bound together with wire. Bending the heavy wire had required great strength. This suggested the creator was male, although his identity was never determined. Constructions also include windings of rubber bands and tape, indicating that linking the elements together was important to the wireman's rationale.

These small, seemingly animated constructions were made with deliberation, in an obsessive devotion to a recurring theme of apparent significance to the creator. They are suggestive of African power objects and Native American medicine bundles. Although their purpose is unknown, their maker possesed a remarkable ability to isolate and communicate concepts of power and energy through the use of ordinary components. While the wireman's constructions may have resulted from a personal mythology (unknown though it may be) they evidence some of the same recurring themes of artifacts arising from the collective mythologies of whole societies, such as the linking of elements, repetition of form, the use of spiral and circular motifs and combining everyday materials to create entities of greater psychic importance.