"Aluminum Foil Thing" Sculpture by Tom Friedman at Lever House, June 2007

Tom Friedman has created an alien environment made entirely with aluminum foil that consists of hundred of precisely sculpted objects that are arranged into ten discrete pieces. This amazing assemblage is presided over by a jovial Aluminum Foil King, resplendent with a crown floating above his enormous, grinning head topped with cardboard tubes from aluminum foil rolls. The King is displayed in front of a wide curtain of many aluminum foil shapes that flutter and move and resembles an asteroid belt.

Friedman elaborates on this celestial shower with Aluminum Foil Thing, an oval grouping of numerous ordinary and surprising things which are suspended from the ceiling and encircled by a model car-racing track on the floor. Located nearby is a humanoid form engaged in an Aluminum Foil Birth and, displayed in a glass case, the remains of an Aluminum Foil Alien Autopsy.

Friedman has used a wide variety of materials including paper, styrofoam, paint, spaghetti, eraser shavings, and yarn, and his choice of aluminum foil for the Lever House project was inspired by the building itself- reflective glass and aluminum. The artist explains his method, "I identified for myself four basic elements: the material I would choose, the process of altering of altering the material, the form it would take, and its presentation. I found that there would be an element of logic to connect them. "

Text from the Lever House Art Collection's posted sign in the gallery's window.