Simply Elemental 2017

18. Mantis
By Joe Kelley

Joe Kelley is an artist who lives and works in Blacksburg. His installation is a large tripod made of steel pipe and wood clad in metal roofing. All the pieces are made from reclaimed materials. The tripod is approximately 10' high and 10' to a side.

Artist Statement:

Mantis was constructed using the trusses and metal roofing from a single wide trailer I tore down in 2008. I have made various iterations of this sculpture mostly with each of the legs being free standing. The tripod form was chosen for structural stability and its historic importance. The whimsy and novel nature of the piece is the creation of a structure from the remains of another structure and to turn the seemingly humble and common place pieces of a mass produced housing unit into something edifying.

In the artist's shop