Camel Bones

Walking through the modern art wing of the DIA, it is difficult to miss “Variability of Similar Forms”. The piece from 1970 created by Nancy Graves, an American artist fills the gallery with hand made camel leg bones, roughly a little taller than the size of the average viewer. There are many of them, covering around 15ft x 10ft of floorspace. They are comprised of steel supports, wax, marble, dust, acrylic and a bit of wood to round it all out. All of those bits come together to create what are believable bone structures that look like they are in mid movement when they are abruptly frozen in place.

The first thing you notice about “Variability of Similar Forms” is that it feels very organic. The bones are created in a very lifelike way, and unless you read the card telling you that they are a composite you would be forgiven for thinking that they could be real. As you look closer you begin to see unique features on each stalk that you would not notice at a quick glance. In some regards this is much like looking at a crowd of people. At a glance features meld and merge, that is until you look closer and you see the uniqueness in each individual. Because they do all look similar though seeing them in all together creates this feeling of the area being a “block” of leg bones, they become a whole instead of just parts of a installation.

As you walk around the piece, it is difficult to not view it as a diorama in alien natural history museum. As though another life form found the camel bones and put them together in the best way they could figure, like segmented tube worms. Either that or they thought they were the main component of a mammalian forest, densely filling the earthen landscape until whatever their hypothetical demise was. I think this placement of known parts into a unknown configuration can open up the viewers imagination and make them look at the world around them in a different light. This piece breaks with the convention of a museum that the subject has to be presented as it existed and cannot be altered to create something more interesting.

When I see the piece, I am reminded of our temporary nature. These legs have the same effect as a skull placed at the feet of a subject in a painting. Yes, the installation isn’t of human bones, but to see bones of an animal you could come in contact with in a museum like environment, presented in the same way dinosaur bones are, you begin to realize that one day your own bones could be on display. To see an example of a living organisms bones in the same way we see fossilized remains is unsettling. They clue you in to the fact that the time between now and when fossilized animals hit the ground is not that grand in the larger scheme of things. Your mortality starts coming into question.

As the name implies, this piece is about repetition of form. Repetition is one of the strongest tools in an artists tool-chest and it hits home quite well in this piece. Was there to be only one leg in the center of the gallery, you would not have the subtle play and banter between the repeated forms. As you circle the installation you see the intersection of the legs into one another, creating interesting shapes.  Depending on how you look at them they sometimes seem to sway back and forth like they are in a herd. This makes you want to move and interact with the environment to get the most from the piece.

The impression and what you get out of“Variability of Similar Forms” seems to depend on what you are looking for when you view it. I could easily see someone looking at it and seeing it as a commentary on any number of things. It could be twisted into being a commentary on weight, showing what amounts to bones standing around. Or commenting on environmental issues, claiming that plant life needs to be protected the same way as animals, and showing them to have the same internal structure would emotionally tie them. Further still someone could view it the same way I did, that it exists to broaden our often finite view of the world by repurposing a subject matter. No matter what you see in it though the piece is very eye-catching and will hold your attention for some time.