Artwork Spotlight: Untitled by Tara Donovan

Brooklyn-based artist Tara Donovan is known for amassing small objects from ordinary life into unexpected forms, such as undulating clouds born of styrofoam cups.  In her sculptures "Untitled" on view in the Taubman Theater lobby, thousands of toothpicks come together to form one cube, and thousands of pins compose another one of similar size.  For installation, technicians used a mold into which they poured and repeatedly settled and pressed down the toothpicks or pins. Then friction, density and gravity held the cubes together.  Depending on light and distance, the toothpicks and pins take on the aspect of completely different materials, and the stray fallen bits foretell the cubic mass's eventual disintegration. We hope you enjoy this Artwork Spotlight at the Taubman Museum of Art! [Tara Donovan (American, born 1969), "Untitled," 2004 (installed 2018), Straight pins, and "Untitled," 1996 (installed 2018), Toothpicks, Courtesy of an anonymous lender]