Pictured above is the The Granite Mountain Records Vault, a large genealogical archive and vault owned by  the LDS Church excavated 600 feet into solid rock in Little Cottonwood Canyon, right near my family home in Utah. (Photo from tellingfamilytales.com)

Hello from Nancy Pearce, purveyor of bronze artifacts!

When I say "Bronze artifacts, nevertheless, I existed," I'm referencing Elizabeth Warren's persistence in a world of Mitch McConnells, and the persistence of these bronze objects to serve as a historical record of this time on earth. I started making artifacts about eight years ago as a bit of a lark… I was thinking about the often forgotten people in the background who support famous artists so they can make their art, like Henry David Thoreau’s mother who did her son’s cooking and laundry at her house nearby while Thoreau wrote Walden. At first I cast a dustpan and some plastic toys from my kid’s Montessori school.  I wanted to see the forms themselves elevated as art objects, but also to recognize the unglamorous cleaning and caregiving work behind those objects.

What began as lark has morphed into a more serious endeavor as climate change has us well on our way to the next mass extinction on earth. Listening to a NYT The Daily podcast “Neanderthals Were People, Too,” I was fascinated to hear about the archaeological site where a Neanderthal skull was found. “Neanderthals weren’t the slow-witted louts we’d imagined them to be.” Working on the site was described as trying to put together a massive jigsaw puzzle with only a couple of pieces available. I seek to create an archive of everyday objects by casting them in durable solid bronze so that future archaeologists will have a few pieces of the puzzle to decode from my limited time on earth starting in the 1970s. When the original objects are long gone, the bronze artifacts will remain, unless they have already been melted down to make something new, because bronze, an alloy mostly made of copper, is a recycled and recyclable material. When all your cryptocurrency is lost, either because you accidentally threw out the hard drive with the key, or through a cyber ransomware attack, or because life on earth has descended into a Mad Max dystopia, you'll be glad you have a hunk of tangible currency to trade for a tank of gas.

I’m delighted that the bronze work is a favorite of Architectural Digest 100’s Pam Shamshiri. I’ve collaborated with Commune Design on a series of Commune + Nancy Pearce bronze pieces who introduced me to Sausalito, California based Heath Ceramics who have been my rock. We’ve been casting a selection of their iconic designs in bronze.  I worked with Julianne Moore to raise money in support of gun violence prevention through a collaborative project which led to a collaboration with Kelly Klein, also in support of this important cause. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in the United States.

Pearce Bronze is not food safe, at least I can’t say for sure that it is.

CONTACT

Please feel free to email or call me!

Email: nancy@nancypearce.com

Phone: 310-754-9223