1989

All Most

American, born 1953

A tall, seemingly precariously balanced structure, Phoebe Adams's All Most conveys a sense of tension and instability. A copper tub, filled with a substance that looks like sludge that is oozing downward, perches atop a found apple-picking ladder turned upside down. The position of each part is contingent upon the others, and the sculpture is designed so that visitors-no matter how tall-cannot see the top, thus emphasizing the work's looming impression. In this piece, Adams explores the relationship between the purely physical and the evocative aspects of a work of art.