Image

Shirley Tse

Do Cinderblocks Dream of Being Styrofoam?, 2003

Description

Maker

Title

Do Cinderblocks Dream of Being Styrofoam?

Year

2003

Medium

Extruded polystyrene foam

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Dimensions

50.8 x 104.1 x 68.6 cm (20 x 41 x 27 inches)

Place

Western

Type

Credit

Georgianna Sayles Aldrich Fund

Object Number

2008.61

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Building Blocks

May 6, 2011 - March 25, 2012

Shirley Tse works primarily with plastics and other synthetic materials. This corner sculpture is made with mass-produced Styrofoam modules that resemble cinderblocks and were designed to build inexpensive furniture (shelving and storage boxes, for example). Tse’s arrangement and carved motifs, along with the
pink pastel color, contrast with the unornamented utilitarian nature of ordinary cinderblocks. Philip K. Dick’s science-fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) inspired the title of the sculpture, which alludes to the impossibility of heavy cinderblocks being made from lightweight Styrofoam.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Do Cinderblocks Dream of Being Styrofoam? with the accession number of 2008.61. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.