Untitled 2003

This is a sculpture by Robert Rauschenberg, and it's like a tiny monument, conjured from silver. It’s so raw, like something quickly cast, and I can imagine Rauschenberg finding the original twig and leaf and thinking, “I must preserve this!" The surface is textured, almost violently rough, giving it a kind of ancient, unearthed quality. It reminds me of those silver-leafed thrift store vases people like to upcycle. The leaf itself, cantilevered out, is so delicate in comparison to the stump. I think it captures a moment of growth, of something fragile pushing out of something solid. Rauschenberg was always playing with the relationship between high and low, the found and the made. Think of his combines and his use of everyday materials! He probably thought this sculpture was some kind of joke, maybe an inside joke with himself. And that’s what’s so cool about art, right? It's a constant conversation with materials, with history, with yourself. It's a question, not an answer.