Andromache 2019

Joseph Pace’s “Andromache” is a sculpture of a hanger densely embellished with pearls, beads, and chains. I imagine Pace building up the surface like a painter layering brushstrokes of impasto. It’s like the artist has transformed a functional everyday object into a baroque reliquary, heavy with memory and meaning. When Pace was creating this, was he thinking about the history of adornment, the value we place on objects, the stories they tell? I can see the ghost of Duchamp, poking fun at the art world, but also something deeply personal—a kind of obsessive accumulation that feels almost compulsive. I’m reminded of other artists who work with found objects, like Thornton Dial, who transformed discarded materials into powerful statements about social injustice. Pace’s piece, though, feels more intimate. The pearls and beads glisten. It’s a poignant reminder of how one artist builds on the work of another, transmuting materials and ideas, adding their own voice to the ongoing conversation that is art.