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Nicotine

Karon Davis

Contemporary Art

Karon Davis reflects on experiences of care and grief through this lifelike sculpture of a nurse or caregiver during a moment of repose. Nicotine—its title a reference to the mood-altering substance contained in the cigarette in the figure’s hand—was originally installed in a gallery that re-created the space of a hospital waiting room, a place in which the occupants experience time, hope, connection, and loss in acute ways. The tattered figure embodies the weight of healthcare work and expresses how people cope and rest when confronted with illness.
ARTIST Karon Davis
MEDIUM Plaster, cloth, oil paint, synthetic hair, clothing, wire, shredded bills, coffee cup, wood, mirror, cigarette
DATES 2016
DIMENSIONS 50 1/2 × 245 1/2 × 31 in. (128.3 × 623.6 × 78.7 cm) storage (2022 storage volume for seated figure on storage base): 58 × 58 × 36 in. (147.3 × 147.3 × 91.4 cm) storage (Tycore sandwich for storing Mirror): 2 × 52 × 20 in. (5.1 × 132.1 × 50.8 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 2018.2
CREDIT LINE Purchase gift of Beth Rudin DeWoody
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Karon Davis. Nicotine, 2016. Plaster, cloth, oil paint, synthetic hair, clothing, wire, shredded bills, coffee cup, wood, mirror, cigarette, 50 1/2 × 245 1/2 × 31 in. (128.3 × 623.6 × 78.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchase gift of Beth Rudin DeWoody, 2018.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Photo courtesy Wilding Cran Gallery, CUR.2018.2_WildingCranGallery_photograph.jpg)
IMAGE overall, CUR.2018.2_WildingCranGallery_photograph.jpg. Photo courtesy Wilding Cran Gallery
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Karon Davis. <em>Nicotine</em>, 2016. Plaster, cloth, oil paint, synthetic hair, clothing, wire, shredded bills, coffee cup, wood, mirror, cigarette, 50 1/2 × 245 1/2 × 31 in. (128.3 × 623.6 × 78.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchase gift of Beth Rudin DeWoody, 2018.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Photo courtesy Wilding Cran Gallery, CUR.2018.2_WildingCranGallery_photograph.jpg)