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Sculpture for Keyboards (Rocks and Minerals II)

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Lenka Clayton (British, b. 1977), "Sculpture for Keyboards (Rocks and Minerals II)", 2021
Photo Credit: 

Laura Shea

On View
Clayton, Lenka
British (1977- )
Place made: 
North America; United States; Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh
Sculpture for Keyboards (Rocks and Minerals II), 2021
Vintage Royal typewriter, typed sheet of paper, , twenty-six minerals
Overall: 5 in x 12 3/4 in x 10 7/8 in; 12.7 cm x 32.4 cm x 27.6 cm
Purchase with the Henry Rox Memorial Fund for the Acquisition of Works by Contemporary Women Artists
MH 2021.14

From the exhibition, Lenka Clayton - Comedy plus Tragedy, Skinner Museum 75, September 28, 2021 - May 29, 2022
A colorful array of rocks and minerals rests on the keys of this vintage typewriter. Clayton has matched each stone by its name to every letter key. For example, a squarish piece of hematite rests on the “H” key, striped jasper on the “J” key, and semi-translucent kyanite on the “K.”

Clayton created this work after seeing the brimming assortment of rocks and minerals on display at the Skinner Museum as well as some old typewriters collected by Joseph Allen Skinner. Through the addition of each rock or mineral, Clayton layers in both wit and loss by making this keyboard unusable. Sourcing her own typewriter for this new creation, the artist also alludes to her almost decade-long practice of making drawings exquisitely rendered through only a typewriter and its ink.