Plumbing the Depths

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Tim Bornstein donated his collection of historic tools to the Coggeshall Farm Museum in 1992. “My fascination with these simple tools was their role in creating our physical environment.” As a Professor of Law and Industrial Relations at UMass Amherst, Mr. Bornstein’s interest in the lives of workers was fundamentally connected to his desire to collect objects related to this subject matter.

Drawing inspiration from a cast-iron plumb bob mold from the Bornstein Collection, Kendall Reiss created site-specific installation, Plumbing the Depths, as a way to both honor Mr. Bornstein’s legacy, as well as acknowledge the history of Coggeshall Farm Museum and the land upon which it is situated.

Supported by a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant, a series of two workshops invited participants of all ages to interact with the Bornstein Collection. Visitors were invited to ring the bells, help forge strikers in the blacksmith shop at Coggeshall Farm, as well as share written reflections. These reflections were collected by the artist and exist as an “Analog Archive”, which serves as a form of collaborative response.

An article about the project, Plumbing the Depths: Haptic Research, Historic Tools was published in Metalsmith Tech Magazine, Spring 2019, Vol. 2 No. 1