Unlocked Chain 1998

Joe Minter’s "Unlocked Chain" is made of metal. I imagine Minter in his yard, welding and piecing together these rusty elements. There’s something about the heft and rawness of the metal. It speaks of hard labor, of industry, but also of resistance. You can almost feel the heat from the welding torch, the weight of the chain in your hands. I see a dialogue between form and content. The vertical slabs feel like barriers, but the open links of the chain suggest a breaking free. Think about what Minter, as a Black man in America, might have been thinking. About history, about struggle, about the ongoing fight for freedom. And it's right there in the artwork. Minter's work reminds me of Thornton Dial, another visionary artist who transformed found objects into powerful statements. They're both part of a long lineage of artists who find beauty and meaning in the discarded, turning the overlooked into something profound.