In the fall of 2011 Brooklyn-based artist Nils Folke Anderson installed one of his mammoth sculptures at The Dikeou Collection and two at the former Dikeou Pop-Up Space, each Untitled yet identified by the street names of their locations (California and Bannock, respectively). The sculptures have lives of their own as, by their very nature, they shift and squeak and shed little foam balls, minutely changing form over time. Consisting of 9 large interlocking squares of Styrofoam, they reflect the artist’s interest in reciprocal linkage, an internet term that represents an agreement between two webmasters to provide links to one another’s websites. Reciprocal linkage also carries symbolic meaning about balance, change, and reciprocity. While interpreting this work through a lens that is “the year 2020,” the philosophy embedded in Nils’ sculptures rings clear during this unhinged time in history.

Each of the squares that make up Nils’ sculptures measure about 9 feet long on each side. The squares are connected in a chain link fashion and start off in a geometrically pleasing nested pattern. When ready to install, Nils moves and manipulates the squares by standing them up and rotating them around, allowing other pieces to fall and turn on their own. The configuration is constantly in flux and there is no predetermined arrangement – the artist’s decision to stop comes when he feels “the elements make an interdependent stasis,” where it can stand on its own and satisfy its relationship with the space. There is no predicting how long the sculpture will be able to support itself. Eventually it starts to slip, making shrill sounds as the foam rubs against itself and shed little pieces on the floor.

In sculpture, certain parts need to lower their profile to prop up others so that the unit as a whole can achieve stability. In life, those with privilege, platforms, and strength need to learn how to use those benefits to support others for the sake of overall balance and equality. As our world struggles dramatically in health, human rights, politics, education, climate change, and economics, we need to learn to find balance through sacrifice. We also must accept that balance is not permanent, and when one area starts to fall we must readjust our priorities and prior configurations in order to support a new composition. Nils’ sculptures at The Dikeou Collection and Dikeou Pop-Up Space have not remained in the same positions he left them. People nudge the edges as they walk by, kids have crawled through like jungle gyms. An employee insisted the installations at the pop-up moved several feet across the room on their own. In the many forms the sculptures have taken, they always achieve harmony through change.

-Hayley Richardson