Cojones II 2006

Barton Lidice Benes created Cojones II, a spherical sculpture made from pencils. These aren’t just any pencils. They're used, broken, and worn down, each one bearing the marks of its former purpose. Benes has transformed these everyday objects into something unexpected. The act of collecting and arranging these pencils speaks to the nature of labor and consumption. Pencils are tools of production, used in offices, schools, and studios across the world, and each of these would have been used by someone in their daily work or study. Here, however, they become aesthetic objects themselves. The sheer accumulation of pencils also alludes to waste and the cycle of consumption, as these tools are used, discarded, and then resurrected into a new form. Benes invites us to see the beauty and potential in the mundane, challenging our assumptions about what constitutes art and value.