Dictionary for Building: Fireplace Mantel

<p>Siah Armajani’s affinity for interior and public architecture is articulated in this sculpture, one of his early works from his <em>Dictionary for Building</em> sculpture series, in which he combines text from Robert Frost’s poem, <em>The Hill Wife</em> (1916) with abstracted, yet recognizable furniture or architectural objects, in this case a fireplace mantel. The poem’s text about a couple’s uneasy relationship with their home expands upon Armajani’s interpretation of a mantel as a dynamic structure—as opposed to a fixed centerpiece or sentimental hearth—to be moved through and around. Mirrors, which conventionally are installed above a fireplace, are angled inwards to reveal otherwise imperceptible aspects of the structure. For the artist, sculpture was “not a thing between four walls in a geometric spatial sense but a tool which directs us into a place for living, sitting, resting, reading, eating, and talking,” suggesting a symbiotic relationship between furniture, sculpture and architecture.</p>