Portable Ball of Confusion
Concrete and found objects collected since childhood
38" x 18" x 18"
2005
A concrete sphere embedded with found objects rests atop a stand fitted with repurposed metal casters, its mobility a deliberate nod to Ed Kienholz—both his wheeled mannequin piece John Doe and his portable tableaux built for easy transport between exhibitions. Thus the title combo of “Portable” merged with the Temptations' 1970 anthem of social unrest titled “Ball of Confusion”. The sphere functions as a dense, chaotic time capsule: a buffalo nickel, an old pocket watch, miniature model parts, and a raccoon skull, all drawn from my own childhood, are suspended within the concrete like sediment. At the summit, a small plastic dinosaur gazes at an oil derrick—a tongue-in-cheek meditation on humanity's fossil-fueled present, staring down the barrel of its own extinction.
