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Ship of Fools: Discover of Time

Bill Woodrow1986

Mattress Factory

Mattress Factory
Pittsburgh, United States

The artist left the turn-of-the-century kitchen in its worn state with peeling paint, neglected wood and antiquated fixtures. He added forms, cut from old metal cabinets.

You open the door into a room to see a disaster, frozen in time. The floor has been raised to show the effects of a mounting flood.

From a tap, made of an overturned gas mantle heater, liquid gold has flowed, filling the kitchen, and has petrified. A metronome fashioned from part of a cabinet to which it still clings stands as a symbol of time. Emerging from the pantry is the front half of a large water buffalo with a ship's model caught in its horns.

A remnant from the cabinet out of which the horns were cut sticks up through the gleaming surface like the fin of a shark. Over all of this, an unshaded bulb casts harsh light.

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  • Title: Ship of Fools: Discover of Time
  • Creator: Bill Woodrow
  • Date Created: 1986
  • Location Created: Mattress Factory Museum
  • Medium: Installation
Mattress Factory

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