Sculpture — Lech Szporer

Selected Sculpture

Lech Szporer, Manteros Selling Police Toys Jewelry Case Triptych, Washington DC, 2024, sculpture, 15” x 15” x 6” (each)

Symbolic Inversions

Staging dilemmas, socio-aesthetic interventions shape communities around collective problem-solving scenarios. Through symbolic inversion, subversive overidentification, destigmatizations and rehumanizations, the artist employs sculpture as a site of conflict resolution and reconciliation. Highly inspired by the work of Paulo Freire and his general praxis of building an inclusive community around a problem, sculpture and the staging of this sculpture can be used as a catalyst for a therapeutic social intervention triggering an outcome-oriented co-intentional problem-solving community.

Lech Szporer, *The Cage (Cut by the NYPD)*, New York, USA, 2015, sculpture, 72.5" x 31" x 31"

Lech Szporer, *The Cage (Cut by the NYPD)* at Y Gallery, NY, USA, 2015, 72.5" x 31" x 31"

Lech Szporer, *Sleight of Hand*, 2009, New York, USA, sculpture/stolen readymade, the official personalized engraved pen of a Civil Court Judge, polished chrome with 23k gold plated appointments, 5.5” x 0.5” x 0.5”, Worth $122,000-$168,000 (the price of the work correlates to the fluctuating annual cost of incarcerating a single person at Rikers Island)

Lech Szporer, *Engraved Handcuffs*, New York, USA, 2015, sculpture, 7.5" x 3.5" x 0.5"

Lech Szporer, *Black Flag Retail Tag*, New York, USA, 2015, sculpture, 3” x 1.75” x 0.2”

Lech Szporer, *Glue Guns (Series)*, New York, USA, 2014-2018, sculpture 4”x5”x2”

Blue Scarf (New York, USA, 2015)

A golliwog (an antique racist doll) with a strip of blue police ribbon wrapped around the doll’s neck. This sculpture refers to three particular deaths of unarmed black people while in police custody. All three victims’s deaths involved their necks.

44 year old Eric Gardner, who was strangled by police officers for selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island, July 17, 2014.

25 year old Freddy Gray, whose neck was broken while being transported in a police vehicle in Baltimore, April 12, 2015.

29 year old Sandra Bland, who was found hanged by a trash bag in a jail cell in Wallace County, Texas, July 13, 2015.

I use the racist doll and police ribbon to interrogate the relationship between racism and police brutality. The title Blue Scarf alludes to the all-too common regularity with which people of color are subjected to state-sponsored violence. It has become an American legacy and remains a living scandal.

Lech Szporer, *Blue Scarf*, New York, USA, 2015, sculpture, 11" x 13" x 4"

Lech Szporer, *No ___king Fence*, Washngton DC, 2017, sculpture, 72” x 145” x 10”

Readymades of Desperation

Over the years I have been collecting sculptural items people in dire situations make out of desperation. From a Mud Phone made by a young female pineapple farmer in northern Uganda, to a Tapestry of Spectacles made by an undocumented refugee in Spain, to the angry scribblings of an abused child in New York - every readymade tells a deeper story about the person who made them. I purchased these works in order to tell their stories.

Lech Szporer, *Mud Phone*, Koboko, Uganda, 2022, sculpture/readyade 4.5”x3”x3”

Lech Szporer, *Sacred* *Gambian Fishing Nets With Prayer Items Hidden Inside*, Tanji, The Gambia, 2023, sculpture/readymade, 44" x 142" x 198"

Lech Szporer, *Tapestry of Spectacles*, Madrid, Spain, 2018, sculpture/readymade, 64" x 64" x 2"

Lech Szporer, *Scribbled Children’s Book*, New York, USA, 2012, sculpture/readymade, 7" x 12" (open)

Toyscape Sculpture

A series of large-scale chaotic installations involving odd shaped fence structures and military camouflage netting littered with colorful toys and stuffed animals depicting the clash between violence and youth and the entrapment of color, vigor, and dynamism. These large-scale sculptures are inspired by the artist’s work with children in refugee camps outside of conflict zones. These sculptural installations are essentially depictions of the imaginations of war-disrupted youth.

Post-War Sculpture

Various sculpture depicting a post-war, apocalyptic aesthetic, as well as the sedimentation and stratification of abandonment and time passing. These mixtures of wax, glass shards, mummified organic matter, parts of disassembled outdated machines, accumulated debris, etc. are fictional artifacts from future wars.

Lech Szporer, *Little White Wax Baby with Broken Glass*, Washington DC, USA, 2018, sculpture, 10.5" x 6" x 2.5"

Lech Szporer, *Piano Blob*, Washington DC, USA, 2018, sculpture, 13" x 10" x 5"

Lech Szporer, *Wax Foot With Hurricane Sandy Debris*, Washington DC, USA, 2018, sculpture, 24" x 7" x 4"

Lech Szporer, *Wax Waist With Roses, Glass, and Plaster*, Washington DC, USA, 2006, sculpture, 16” x 15” x 15”

Lech Szporer, *Bur Blob*, Washington DC, USA, 2018, sculpture, 7" x 7.5" x 4.5"

Lech Szporer, *Rectangular Blob*, Washington DC, USA, 2018, sculpture, 18" x 3.5" x 2"

Lech Szporer, *Wax Male Feet With Nails*, Washington DC, USA, 2006, sculpture, 12” x 12” x 10”

Lech Szporer, *Negatives With Lightbulb and Glass Shard,* Washington DC, USA, 2006, sculpture, 5” x 10” x 4”

Lech Szporer, *Feather Jar*, Washington DC, USA, 2006, sculpture, 5” x 5.5” x 2.5”

Lech Szporer, *Wax Baby With Missing Left Arm*, Washington DC, USA, 2005, sculpture, 12” x 7” 6”

Lech Szporer, *Plaster Cotton Wood Stain Cube,* Washington DC, USA, 2007, sculpture, 8” x 13” x 8”

Lech Szporer, *Some Are Mine and Some Are Not*, New York, USA, 2013, sculpture, 10” x 12” x 0.75”

Reassemblages (USA, 2005)

Reassemblages of antiquated instruments. Both the typewriter and the player piano have been replaced by what are often considered improved technologies, such as the computer and the electric keyboard.

Lech Szporer, *Piano Patterns*, New York, USA, 2006, sculpture, 12” x 56” x 56”

Typemobiles & Pianomobiles (New York, USA, 2005)

Typemobiles were made from reassembled typewriters that were fabricated during WWII. Multiple WWII-era typewriters were acquired through scouting thrift stores across Brooklyn, NY, and later disassembled and reassembled into hanging sculptural mobiles.

Pianomobiles were made from reassembled upright and player pianos. Multiple unsellable pianos were donated by Beethoven Pianos, transported from their piano warehouse in Long Island City to my studio in Bushwick, and there they were disassembled and reassembled into hanging sculptural mobiles. Shout out to Beethoven Pianos for their donation!