Marfa Wire

Created by Joe Davis

The vast West Texas landscape is host to one of the most remarkable small towns I’ve ever encountered. Marfa, Texas, population about 1,800 people, was founded in the mid-1800s, but was put on the map, so to speak, in the early 1970s by artist Donald Judd. After owning a house there for 10+ years, I started noticing an abnormal amount of wire laying here and there in streets and alleys all around town. A couple of years ago I started saving it. The accidental shaping of it by being crushed under truck tires, and the rusty colored surfaces, and even the texture of it has become thoroughly engaging to me. Eventually some of it ended up on the walls of my home. More recently, I have been using it to make other shapes such as cubes and rectangles. I’ve re-bent some of it to make representational wall figures, and have been working on an endless series of graphite drawings of it. The original purpose of all this wire was connected primarily to the ranching business and now it’s new life is filled with endless possibilties.