Tools

Woody De Othello utilizes ceramic and bronze to create intriguing, humorous, and poignant sculptures that reference both the quotidian and the metaphysical. Such is true of Tools, which is comprised of ten separate elements. An abstracted, headless human figure made of glazed and fired clay sits atop an irregularly shaped, asymmetrical ladder, which De Othello cast in bronze. The figure's legs are crossed in the lotus position, and its neck is bent in the manner of prayer or meditation. On the ladder's six rungs are a variety of objects that depict everyday items, all of them rendered larger than life, with the same cartoon-like organicism as the ladder, including a remote control, a coffee mug, a handheld mirror, a pair of lace-up shoes, a handset from a Trimline style telephone, and two garden implements: a trowel and a three-tine cultivator. By exaggerating each component's form and endowing it with anthropomorphic expressivity, the artist expands that component's emotional and psychological affect. De Othello, raised in Miami by parents who immigrated from Haiti, is inspired by the cultural and spiritual traditions of western Africa and the African diaspora, including those of the Yoruba, Bantu, and Kongo peoples whose practices live on in Haiti. As with the people who embrace these conventions, De Othello endows the objects he creates with spiritual power and significance, turning them into vessels in function if not, exactly, in shape.