Melvin Edwards’s works on paper feature traces of barbed wire, chain, and metal grating. Rendered in brightly colored spray paint or watercolor, the resulting images resemble the gestural lines of a delicate drawing. At the same time, there is a destabilizing disjunction between the ephemeral quality of the pictured implements and their real-world uses. Chains, for example, while symbolizing human connections, are also tools of bondage and oppression; similarly, barbed wire and metal grating are frequently used to imprison and separate populations. By transforming these objects into fanciful garlands, Edwards ultimately draws attention to his materials' most foreboding aspects.
