[TheForge] New

[xlch58 at swbell.net]

Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer wrote:
> There are a whole bunch of art crazies who do stuff like that....find 
> a setting they like, make and install the piece they think belongs there.
>  Large or small,elaborate or just a few licks, they then abandon it 
> anonymously.
> A few hide and video the consequences..the purists just split and go 
> on to the next piece of work.
> It sort of overlaps with  street theater.
> As our economic efficiency drops away from Chinese industrial 
> standards...we get closer to the above mentioned crazies;
> Hey, welcome, there's lots of room, yet.
>   a Soused PF
>
Try looking at the website:

<http://www.found-art.com>

The first time I heard about it was via Kirsten Skiles's Leaflady 
blog.    I seem to recall she tried it, but I may be misremembering, I 
may have found the link off of one of the links on her blog page.    It 
is really a neat idea I think, though better suited maybe to artists 
that can create something unique and then semi mass produce.  Postcard 
art seems to be popular.  Think about the effect a small handforged 
object might have on the finder though.  Simple forged details often 
escape the notice of most non smiths, who have never invested themselves 
in a piece of iron.  Leaving a small and sparingly worked bit of iron 
for someone to find changes the equation -- the chance event of finding 
it draws the finder in.  Finding the object makes them special, and they 
in turn make the object special.  A simple scroll or even a small forged 
leaf now enjoys a far different appraisal in the eyes of the finder than 
the glance it might have received on a table of wares for sale or as a 
faint detail of a larger work.  Obscurity banished by circumstance -- 
participatory art for blacksmiths, forcing the finder to complete the 
piece with their imagination.   Or maybe it is just me that has a half 
dozen cheap single earrings found in parking lots around the country 
that I can't seem to toss out......

Charles