Cat's Cradle

Cat’s Cradle is a steel sculpture made of steel round stock powder-coated in white. The sculpture forms two church-like structures facing in opposite directions connected by a unified lines of steel. The steel bars from each church sag like string. The entire structure resembles the child’s string game called cat’s cradle where the string is threaded on each hand and manipulated to create a design which is then passed back and forth between two people, each altering the form until no further shapes can me made.

The church’s are iconic american gothic architecture reminiscent of the work of Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. The context in which they are presented as strings to be pulled and manipulated parallel the symbolism used in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle in which he used the title to symbolize how mankind’s ideas and truths are really based on lies or narratives. 

Combining iconic American images of piety with a simple child’s string game calls into question the nature, manipulation and creation of cultural beliefs associated with cultural folkways.