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Paul Sietsema
Calendar Sticks, 2007

This artwork was featured in New Work: Paul Sietsema. Learn more about SFMOMA’s New Work series.

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Calendar Sticks
Artist name
Paul Sietsema
Date created
2007
Classification
installation
Medium
bamboo, paint, tape, paper, latex, staples, paper clip, string, urethane powder, and clay
Dimensions
74 1/2 in. × 14 in. × 5 in. (189.23 cm × 35.56 cm × 12.7 cm)
Date acquired
2007
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Purchase through a gift of Joan Roebuck
Copyright
© Paul Sietsema
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2007.150
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Sietsema reflects on his meticulously re-crafted artifacts

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transcripts

APSARA DI QUINZIO: 

This sculpture, Calendar Sticks by Paul Sietsema resembles ancient walking sticks that wouldve been used my many different nomadic cultures to record events and measure the passage of time while traveling on foot. 

 

NARRATOR: 

Curator Apsara DiQunzio 

 

DI QUINZIO: 

As an event happened, they would record it on the sticks. At the top of the calendar sticks, you see words that are inscribed onto pieces of paper, such as bamboo city and Chinese porcelain.  

Sietsema is very interested in these places that have been radically impacted by American  

or Western imperialism. And bamboo city refers to a safe area or a watering hole for American soldiers in Vietnam. And Chinese porcelain alludes to both the precious object itself, but then also to the sometimes dangerous trade routes connecting China and Holland. So these are very loose descriptions, but are very much connected with the Western history of colonialism.  

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These painted bamboo sticks evoke tools used by lost cultures to measure the passage of time. The markings suggest notations of size in anthropological photographs of such artifacts. Two phrases are painted on the hanging latex strips. “Bamboo city” refers both to the safe areas and watering holes used by American soldiers during the Vietnam War and to the refugee camps that emerged along the Cambodian and Thai borders. “Chinese porcelain” references the historical trade economy between China and the Netherlands that relied on Vietnamese ports. For Sietsema the sticks also act as metaphors for his movement through time periods while researching his projects.

Gallery text, 2016

Other Works by Paul Sietsema

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