Haruka Yamada

This work is made by joining fragments of rusted tie wire collected from construction sites in Los Angeles. The found wires are not cut or bent; they are connected as they are, forming shapes that resemble handwriting.

Tie wire is originally used to fasten temporary fences that separate construction zones from public space, fixing boundaries installed for safety. In this work, fragments of tie wire that had finished their role, rusted or broken and fallen to the ground, are connected and presented as a line of marks like handwriting without letters, or a sequence of symbols without an alphabet. Through this, the work attempts to reread the function and form of tie wire. It directs attention to the invisible labour and bodies that support the city behind the daily life of a place where people with diverse backgrounds live. The work emerged from the artist’s sense that immigrant workers, especially those who do not speak English, are deeply connected to the way the city exists today.

When viewers point a smartphone camera at the piece, automatic text recognition sometimes tries to read the wires as letters. Once it generated a phrase that roughly translated as “eight fleeing naked Lamars, the two of you rolled together.” Such misreadings suggest that even lines never intended as writing can rise up as yet-unnamed words, fragments of meaning, or something like poetry.