Tippy Toes

Alison Saar is a sculptor and a mixed-media and installation artist. Her artwork is influenced by African, Caribbean, and Latin American folk art and spirituality. She is the daughter of assemblage artist Beyte Saar, who was involved in the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This movement worked to deconstruct racism by embracing Black culture and pride. Like her mother, Saar uses various media to explore her Black female identity. Her work also focuses on the African diaspora.

Saar grew up in a California canyon, where nature was part of her everyday life. She considers natural materials essential to her work. She explored more structural, urban forms while she was working in New York City. She says that her recent work is a balance between natural and structural elements. This balance is evident in Tippy Toes, with its twiglike form and rough-hewn wooden figure and cast bronze base.

Many of Saar’s sculptures explore the contrasting qualities of vulnerability, strength, and femininity. The female figure in Tippy Toes is suspended in mid-air by what looks like a delicate crinoline. The seemingly fragile structure, however, is cast from sturdy bronze. The structure lifts the figure up, but it also confines her. The thorns on the structure suggest the figure’s painful and difficult uprising. She is elevated to a height of nearly five feet tall. This makes her appear to engage with the viewer as an equal. 

The cagelike structure of Tippy Toes is based on a torture device known as the “iron maiden” chamber. The iron maiden is a casket with metal spikes inside it. 

tags: environment, identity, power, perception