thicket

Lily Cox-Richard

thicket

thicket

It has no hips; it tapers like a carrot; when it stands, it spreads itself apart like a derrick; so I think it is a reptile, though it may be architecture.

Eve’s Diary, Translated from the Original MS by Mark Twain

In Pursuit of the Eves If abuse, then its siren song If the threads of the axis, then arrows If to grind down, to document / If to salute, to make your hands sharper If the immediate snake, his two weeks need for feeding If the canopy, its disposition to stretch / If the dust, then at least as much its making If going on, its own Texas freeway If mileage, then the magnetics of a better lever’s torque Davy Knittle

If true, then flying like it If they aren’t a fortress, for this alone

Notes page 4 Eve, describing Adam (whom she calls “the other experiment”), from Mark Twain, Eve’s Diary, Translated from the Original MS by Mark Twain (London and New York: Harper and Brothers, 1906).

7 Davy Knittle, “In Pursuit of the Eves (for Lily Cox-Richard),” 2013.

5, 8–23 Lily Cox-Richard, Haptic/Thicket, 2013. Digital photographs of the artist’s hands cast in plaster. (Photographs by Lily Cox-Richard and Sharad Patel) 26–27 Hiram Powers, Cast of the Right Hand and Wrist of Hiram Powers, c. 1855. Plaster and metal, 4 1/2 x 13 x 4 5/8 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson. (Photographs by Lily Cox-Richard) Thicket is part of the larger project, The Stand (Possessing Powers), which grapples with sculptural traditions as they relate to American history, gender, and form. Each carved plaster sculpture in this series takes on a marble figure by Hiram Powers (1805–1873), once considered the Father of American Sculpture. Thicket focuses on two of his sculptures: Eve Tempted (modeled 1839–1842) and Eve Disconsolate (modeled 1855–1861).

Haptic/Thicket, the series of photographs featured in this book, is an exploration of wanting and knowing, a physical manifestation of grappling.

Acknowledgments Many thanks to the curators, scholars, and staff at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Cincinnati Art Museum. I am grateful to the Michigan Society of Fellows, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Millay Colony, and the MacDowell Colony for providing time, space, support, and most of all, for putting me in the room with such sparkling people.

To my fellows and friends, thank you for the good questions, care, and magic.

This project was made possible by the Paula & Edwin Sidman Fellowship in the Arts, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan.

Copyright 2013 Lily Cox-Richard first edition of 500

28–29 Lily Cox-Richard, (not yet titled), 2013 (collaged photographs: Hiram Powers, Cast of the Closed Right Hand of Hiram Powers, c. 1855, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Hiram Powers, Cast of the Right Arm and Hand of “Eve Tempted” (little finger missing), n.d., Smithsonian American Art Museum).

30 Hiram Powers, Eve Tempted, modeled 1839–1842, carved 1873–1877. Marble, 68 7/8 x 29 7/8 x 20 1/2 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, purchase in memory of Ralph Cross Johnson. (Photograph by Lily Cox-Richard) 31 Memorandum, May 11, 1988. Smithsonian American Art Museum Curatorial Files, Hiram Powers, Eve Tempted, Correspondence Notes. Smithsonian Institution Archives.

32 Hiram Powers, Eve Disconsolate, modeled 1855–1861, carved 1872–1877. Marble, 78 1/16 x 22 5/8 x 25 15/16 in. Cincinnati Art Museum, gift of Nicholas Longworth. (Photograph by Lily Cox-Richard) 33 Laura Vookles, Chief Curator of Collections, Hudson River Museum, email message to author, July 28, 2013.

Inside front cover: Pete Pattavina, Kudzu, 2007.

Inside back cover: Lily Cox-Richard, Studio Floor, 2013.