Finny Fish 1948

Curator: At first glance, it's whimsical! A delicate kind of strangeness… a fishbowl reimagined? Editor: Precisely. We're looking at Alexander Calder's "Finny Fish," a sculpture crafted in 1948. Curator: "Sculpture" feels almost too heavy a word for something so airy. Tell me more about this…construction? Editor: Calder uses wire to outline the shape of a fish, then fills the interior with suspended bits of colored glass and other small, dangling objects. It’s like he’s captured a miniature, abstracted underwater world. It makes me think of how visual cultures carry ideas in unexpected shapes. Curator: Absolutely. There’s a playfulness to it, almost a naive quality. It seems designed to delight, to catch the light and cast little dancing shadows. But also, looking at the outline, I'm reminded of children's book illustrations from that era... it hits me nostalgically. Editor: Nostalgia is key, I think. These sorts of lightweight materials and forms, presented in a carefully ordered configuration, reflect on broader notions about impermanence and wonder, especially after such a world war. The dangling objects create this feeling that life continues. Curator: Yet the red string tail is a surprise; how linear! And almost violent! Considering that it is the only strongly-coloured portion, the aggression feels even more... present. Editor: That tension is part of what makes it so compelling, I think. This contrast hints at both harmony and disruption. Calder, in his time, sought new possibilities by blending familiar ideas from high and low culture—but this almost mocks this gesture. What do you make of this contrast? Curator: It seems as though Calder wants to celebrate a postwar moment where everything, although newly colorful, still contains hints of recent trauma, reflected here in the fragmented material culture displayed within the main body. But still—its optimism peeks through... Editor: A brilliant way to see the sculpture—as a memory palace floating right before your eyes!