Mouse
Artist
Rona Pondick
(American, born 1952)
Date2002–2006
Mediumstainless steel
Dimensions16.5 x 24.1 x 43.2 cm (6 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 17 in.)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineChapin Riley Fund at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation
Object number2009.146
Label TextRona Pondick’s mutant self-portrait—a hybrid of human and animal, likeness and invention—evokes compelling cultural parallels from the Egyptian Sphinx and Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the disturbing promises of contemporary genetic manipulation. For this sculpture, Pondick embellished the factual detail of her life-cast head with a hand-carved cascade of invented hair that cradles a nearly bodiless mouse. What makes Pondick’s Mouse so convincing while unmistakably not of our world is the seamless transition from one realm to another—human to animal, skin texture to mirror finish, life size to miniature. The texture of human flesh contrasted with the polished and abstracted animal body dramatically affects our physical and emotional responses to the sculpture and locates it in the psychological realm of human experience. Inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s Sleeping Muse (whose disembodied head rests on its side with eyes closed), Pondick’s Mouse conveys a psychological interiority that can be interpreted as introspection, fantasy, or alienation.
ProvenanceSonnabend Gallery, New York, NYOn View
Not on view
