Untitled (23)
Untitled
- Creator: Margaret Pope
- Date: 2025
- Location: Erma Hayman House
- Types: assemblages (sculpture)
- Materials: metal, thread
Margaret Pope explores how Boise lies at the intersection of dueling contradictory visions - a romanitcized, individualistic, masculine, rugged version of the West, and a growing urban hub that is the center of politics and culture in Idaho. For this work I have deconstructed barbed wire, a material long tied to rural land, ownership, and division, by unraveling its strands and reconnecting them with embroidery thread. The barbed fragments are bound with dark red thread, and the non-barbed segments with soft pinks. The wire is transformed through cutting and rebinding, taking on new configurations that cross, tangle, and intersect. The physical act of dismantling and reconnecting the barbed wire is a transformative process that reimagines the materials rigidity and function. This piece was selected as the winner of the juried American Contradictions: A Boise Visual Chronicle Exhibition in 2025.
