In Bak’s Nailings series, he plays around with the visual symbolism of a familiar object. He amplifies and reinvents nails and hammers, transforming them into tools of violence, puncturing both figures and their surrounding environment.
In the final iteration of the septet, there is a tension between destruction and reconstruction: although nails can cause harm, they can also be used to build something anew.
A large nail is prominent in the foreground of the painting, splitting the composition diagonally. Behind, there is a hammer, made up of smaller pieces of wood pieced together. Will this hammer and nail be used to fix the crumbling buildings or to further destroy?
Two figures made of wood are frozen in time, seemingly mid-step. They are slightly bent over, as if hiding from something just behind the wall. Is this a narrative of escape or entrapment for these figures?
A warm orange glow emanates from the windows of a house in the background. Flickers of orange highlight the figures and peeling wall in the foreground. Orange and blue paint both complement and fight one another for attention. The bright color palette contrasts the darker tones used in the previous image of the series.
In typical Bak fashion, the visual narrative offers up simultaneous evidence of both violence and hope.
Lilly Harvey (Guest writer)
BAK a Day, January 26, 2023
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The Septet is now complete.
Sam has nailed it!
A strange scene of silhouetted figures sneak across the landscape and encounter a mirage of a hammer.
An arched opening above and two illuminated arched windows in the background.
An improbable space.
The joy of creating a space and place that can only present the mystery that is life.
The giant nail divides the space dramatically.
So ends the septet of Nailings.
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![Nailings [Septet 7/7]](/images/wwwArtworkMax/8394_SJ1341_BK2645-(ff7bd51a-4bab-11ec-adc5-478fc22c3ce0).jpg)
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