Welded steel, 1997.
“Crucible” names a vessel that survives what it contains. It holds metal at melting temperature, and the word also means a trial severe enough to change whatever is put through it. The sculpture is a small, deep bowl with a long rod set into its side, and the proportions say what the object is for. The rod is several times the length of the bowl, and the bowl is the smallest part of the piece. Whoever works with something that hot stays at arm’s length, and the length of the handle is a measure of the distance needed.
A small clamp with bolts joins the bowl to its handle. A short stub projects from the bowl beside the rod, and a chain trails from the bowl on the left. The inside of the bowl is dark. Nothing is melting in it, and the sculpture shows the apparatus for handling the test without the test. The distance is built into the object, and the viewer stands at the far end of the handle from whatever the crucible would hold.
