Watering Can #1 2000

Gary Roper's Watering Can #1 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art looks like it's made of iron or a similar metal, and has a slightly rough, textured surface. I love the gesture of that long, curved spout. It's as if Roper took a single, decisive breath and exhaled the metal into that elegant shape. I’m imagining him heating the metal, bending it, and coaxing it into this form. The handle, too, has this wonderful curve, echoing the spout but in a more contained way. It's almost like a dance between these two elements, each balancing the other. I wonder if Roper was thinking about the functionality of the watering can or more about its sculptural possibilities. It reminds me of some of the surrealist objects by artists like Meret Oppenheim, where everyday objects are transformed into something strange and poetic. This piece feels like it's part of that lineage, turning the mundane into something magical. In the end, artists have always been inspired by the world around them, and I'm pretty sure Roper found a way to make this object speak beyond its everyday use.