Tent City

Artist: Daniel Adams

Materials: steel, tape, SoftFlex, sterling silver

Dimensions: 48 x 24 x 18 mm

Beneficiary: FareStart helps provide the homeless and poor the skills and connections to work in the restaurant industry. They also provide healthy, fresh meals to the vulnerable wherever they are: schools, shelters and medical facilities.

Artist Statement: We see the homeless around us every day, in cars, tents or huddled under whatever shelter is available. My mother was one of these unfortunate people. This was largely due to drugs and alcohol but layered in was childhood sexual abuse and dysfunctional relationships. Eventually she got help as part of a court diversion program but poverty and mental illness haunted the rest of her days. Yet occasionally the old person would emerge for a moment, like the sun through a hole in the clouds. To survive the homeless use the debris of the modern world to survive.  In honor of this creative repurposing, I made this piece from left over, old rusted steel and the ubiquitous blue tape seen holding together so many campsites. The tape is cut into the form of homes to honor these places - eyesores to most of us but home to so many. The folks at FareStart don’t accept that the poor are irredeemable or worthless. I appreciate this and support their mission, remembering the woman I loved so much.