Alison Saar

LOST AND FOUND

Allison Saar’s Lost and Found is a large and commanding sculpture: it grabs your attention right away. But, what could it possibly mean? We see two figures seated and looking straight down, each figure a mirror image of the other, connected only by a cloud of hair stretched out between them. One way to look at this work of art is as a visual metaphor: Though the figures do not look toward each other and sit opposite each other; they are connected. You might even say they are bound together, tied up together. The artist may be saying that what ties us together, literally, is more than what keeps us apart. The sculpture is made of nothing fancy: it is wood, tin and wire. The use of these simple materials suggests that this sculpture comes from the world of real daily life, made from the humble things we all know. This simplicity combined with the seemingly fantastic way the figures are presented supports the message the artist may be trying to send, that we go through world connected to each other, however unlikely it may sometimes seem.