- Perseus Digital Library: a short discussion of iron duties in the colonies found in George Bancroft’s History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent.
- ArtStor online search: image of a Congolese nail fetish.
- Google Book search: Gregory Clark’s A farewell to alms: a brief economic history of the world.
- LION search: Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Pulling a Nail”
- Youtube: Blacksmith forging a nail
Monday, September 29, 2008
Hit the Nail on the...
I’ve been collecting material for “My Nail Museum.”
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4 comments:
There's a pinky and the brain episode, too, where they go to amish country (they call it Rhennish) to get to a sneezing powder mine, and the Rhennish guys make them take part in their daily barn raising by "crafting the nails", which, if they were bought at the store, would represent idlenes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ditxnoh0Wo
jump to 1:10 for the clip. I swear the nails come up more in the episode, but i can't find much other footage online.
-Sam Dean
Painting to Hammer a Nail In, by Yoko Ono
http://www.iniva.org/dare/themes/play/images/ono4.gif
This painting/performance/interactive piece also played a biggish role in the first interactions between Yoko and John, he wanted to hammer a nail in the day before the show opened, but she wouldn't let him, not having any idea of who he was (so she claimed)- Yoko told John he could hammer in a nail for 5 shillings, and John said "I'll give you an imaginary five shillings if you let me hammer in an imaginary nail."
-Jieun Reiner
Nails from The Past
http://www.glasgowsteelnail.com/romans.HTM
Let me know if you are going to go into hammers also, I am expert on hammer museums. Husserl and Heideigger like to use hammer and nail as examples of things.
Jonathan
A few lateral suggestions:
Nicoletta, Julie. "Architecture of the Shakers". Woodstock, Vt: Countryman Press, 1995.
(Worldcat)
Obviously there's a great deal of material on the Shakers, but I wondered if their particular preference for using either no visible, or no nails at all, linked with their belief in making something well in itself, as 'an act of prayer', is an interesting conversation to have - entangling artisanship, religious belief, and the object.
On a slightly more graphic note, you could also view a a Crucifixion ceremony in the Philippines - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGe-DkDPHR4
Using nails as opposed to lashing one's wrists to the cross is deemed to be a more committed form of worship: most ceremonies won't let you participate as one of the centrepieces unless you're willing to hammer in nails.
As a lighter note, you could also flavor your imagination with some Sam Beckett (always a pick-me-up following crucifixion imagery): I'm certain that you'll be familiar with, but it's worth reiterating, that one common school of thought argues that Hamm could be short for Hammer and Clov be 'clove' (etymologically 'nail'), and that 'hammer and nail' represent one aspect of their relationship.
--Ryan
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