Artist Nathan Mabry (American, b. 1978)
Title Heavy Handed (Let Sleeping Dogs...)
Date 2012
Medium Steel
Dimensions Object: 39 × 75 × 96 in. (99.1 × 190.5 × 243.8 cm)
Overall: 39 × 75 × 96 in. (99.1 × 190.5 × 243.8 cm)
Credit Line Gift of Howard and Wilma Kaye, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2019.199
About this Work
A rust-covered mass of steel suggests the form of a human hand, its blocky digits tipped with rectangular impressions of fingernails. The middle and ring finger point straight, while the pinky rests slightly apart. The thumb and index finger curl together but do not touch, unlike the well-known English-language hand gesture signaling “okay.” In 2017, five years after artist Nathan Mabry created this sculpture, the OK sign was co-opted by American white supremacists to signal their hateful beliefs.
Mabry, a white man, acknowledges that hand gestures, like verbal language, change meanings in different contexts and over time. For example, another sculpture in this series, playfully titled Heavy Handed (Symbol), uses the same material approach to make the V signal, which went from meaning “victory” during the Second World War to “peace” during the American anti-war movement. This hand is meant to resemble a shadow puppet of a dog resting on its side with its jaw slightly agape. However, in light of the contemporary reevaluation of historical public monuments, one could imagine this artwork differently, perhaps as a sculpture toppled over. In art, as in language, meanings differ between perspectives and change over time.
