Zaga

Since the 1960s, when she constructed camels of polyurethane, burlap and animal skins, Nancy Graves challenged the boundaries of accepted materials, techniques and subject matter in sculpture. In Zaga, she used a direct bronze casting technique rather than the more traditional lost wax method. Zaga incorporates Monstrosa leaves, Hupa ferns and Chinese cooking scissors, directly cast in bronze. They retain their original identities and serve as their own armatures. These individual bronze objects are then welded together and given a patina of bold colors that are actually fused to the metal. Their delicate balance defies both the weight of the bronze metal and gravity itself. Graves named Zaga in homage to a suite of sculptures by David Smith (1906-1965), entitled Zig.