In the mind of an anxious person, a household iron can become a monster. Visions arise of a child's hand touching the blazing-hot plate, or of a dog getting tangled in the cord.
Artist Willie Cole sees the darkness in everyday objects, too, but also the possibilities for wit and depth never imagined by Sunbeam or G.E.
He can take an iron scorch mark and repeat it like a Warhol soup can. The patterns become a sunflower, or African tribal brands on a photo of his own body. Or emblems on warriors' shields -- which are, of course, ironing boards. One may smile at the fictional anthropology, but the burns can also feel threatening, haunting.
Cole, who often explores issues of his own African-American identity, thinks back to slavery when he speaks of his "Domestic Shields." He imagines that the shields were used "in a mass uprising of slaves over their masters that would spread from house to house; in this revolution, each individual 'house' would become a battalion identified by the pattern on its shield," as he was once quoted in a Saint Louis Art Museum brochure.
The shields are part of Cole's current exhibit at the Cantor Arts Center, called "Anxious Objects," and the adjective is heavy with meaning. There's an unease about these items -- irons, hair dryers, bicycle parts -- being used in Cole's assemblages and scorched paintings. A viewer may find pleasure in Cole's humor and eye for beauty, the way he lifts commonplace to powerful. But there's an underbelly of issues being examined, from racism to the dangers of consumerism.
"The term 'anxious objects' comes from critic Harold Rosenberg's contention that contemporary artists create hybrid objects with strong and unsettling cultural implications and energy," Cantor curator Hilarie Faberman said.
The nationally touring exhibit was organized by the Montclair Art Museum in Cole's home state of New Jersey. It contains 34 works of art, including the pert 1998 "Water Window Female Iron Figure," which greets visitors at the entrance.
Made from the top casings of 23 irons, the figure looks like an African tribal warrior woman, with power cords looped around the neck and waist like strings of beads. Cole took the name "Water Window" from the moniker of a General Electric iron.
The work could be a statement about the false idol of capitalism. Cole has also said it looks like the cartoon character Marvin the Martian.
Another striking piece is 1990's "Air in Remission," a hanging "O" of interwoven hair dryers. The circle is 96 inches in diameter and can create an open feeling of flowing wind. The word "remission," though, can make one think of illness, and the phrase is similar to "error in remission," Montclair Art Museum director Patterson Sims wrote in the exhibit catalog.
"The alternative meaning provided by 'error' suggests an injustice in having an illness return after it was thought cured or coming to the realization that the air we expected was safe to breathe may be hazardous to one's health," he said.
The issue of clean air may be especially relevant to an artist who lived for a long time in a Newark area known for pollution. Born in 1955 in Somerville, Cole has lived in New Jersey nearly all his life.
Earlier this month, Cole visited Stanford and gave a talk attended by an enthusiastic crowd. He showed slides of his work and studios, including a Newark factory space where he lived and worked in the '80s and '90s.
Cole's art has included drawings, paintings and jewelry -- along with theater and drumming -- but it took a different turn in the late '80s when he found a steam iron in the street. It had been run over by a car and was probably 20 years old.
"I felt that the iron was calling me to pick it up," Cole said at Stanford. "It looked like a face, an African mask."
Cole's connection with irons dates back to his childhood, when he was the only man in the house and often repaired broken appliances. In his artwork, he frequently uses an iron shape to represent a house or a slave ship.
While speaking, the artist showed images of himself in "tribal costumes" -- iron-scorch images superimposed all over his body. The tribes, he said, could be called Sunbeam or Silex. Some people in the audience tittered, and Cole responded pleasantly: "I don't think this work is funny. Years from now, an archaeologist wouldn't know if this was real or not."
In 2000, Cole's work gained another new dimension with his artist residency at the Kohler Company in Wisconsin. During the 18-week program, artists work side by side with factory laborers, using Kohler products such as faucets, toilet tank tops and spouts. These items may have earthy purposes, but Cole saw their soft shapes and gleaming brass and porcelain. He thought of sensuality and Hindu deities.
"I was inspired by the curves and white of the toilet parts. They looked like elephants," he said. "I felt like I was in a temple of Shiva and Ganesha. It was like a spiritual place."
Cole's Kohler work includes figurines called "Pleasure" and "Longing," in which he used glazed vitreous china and altered plumbing fixtures to create curvy legs and arms, languid postures. "Pleasure" is in the Cantor exhibit.
One medium that clearly still has a hold on Cole is the high-heeled shoe. His life-size shoe chair "Made in the Philippines" is a centerpiece of the exhibit. The 1993 work contains 3,000 shoes, PVC pipe and wood and was inspired by Imelda Marcos and her notorious footwear collection.
"Sole Protector" is a 2005 Buddhist protector figure made of shoes, including teeth fashioned from white pointy heels. Cole used the same toothy technique with his 1994 shoe mask of Rosa Parks. Where the gaudy shoes mocked Marcos, here they herald an uprising.
Cole buys the shoes from the Salvation Army for 50 cents a pound, and has heaps of them still waiting to be used. For these creations, as with all his art, he doesn't make sketches in advance.
"I just need the stack of shoes there, and I'll just sit and play with them until something happens," he said.
Someone in the audience asked what he's working on now. Cole mentioned video pieces on the emotions of love and hate, iron-scorch works that look like tapestries, and busts made of patent leather shoes.
"That's what I feel now, but it may change," he said, grinning.
He might want to stick with the bust project. After all, he's still got 100,000 shoes in his studio.
What: "Anxious Objects: Willie Cole's Favorite Brands," an exhibit of assemblages and other works.
Where: Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University.
When: Through Jan. 6. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 11 to 8.
Cost: Free.
Info: Go to http://museum.stanford.edu or call 650-723-4177.
