During a recent visit to Toronto, I came across the interesting piece of art in the lobby of its City Hall (note: infamous Mayor Ford was no where to be seen — I know you all were just dying to know). It was a fairly large piece of art, covering roughly 6 x 3 meters. The work was composed entirely of nails of different sizes, slightly different colors, and embedded into the wall at different depths to produce this rather curious but pleasing piece. I couldn’t find the artist’s name listed anywhere.
The nail sculpture, and especially the last picture, remind me a bit of El Anatsui’s work, a visual fabric composed of commonplace elements. Fabulous!
I did a little looking, and was able to find the artist, David Partridge. The work is called Metropolis, and uses more than 100,000 nails. If you drop a coin into it at the top, apparently, the coin will find a path to the bottom, making random music as it goes! Here’s some more about it