{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":58489,"auction_id":121,"set_id":155,"lot_number":"125","artist":"Jose John Santos III (b. 1970)","title":"Dumb bells \"Series of 12\"","starting_price":200000,"signed_dated":"2017","medium":"cement, polyresin, and gesso transfers","size":"H: 8 1/4\" (21.5 cm)
\nL: 8 1/4\" (21.5 cm)
\nW: 33 1/4\" (85 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by The Visual Arts Helping Hands Foundation, Inc. confirming the authenticity of this lot","provenance":null,"exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Jose John Santos III’s Dumb bells ‘Series of 12’ shines a light on the artist’s heightened awareness of everyday objects and the never ending meanings one can imbue into them. Though his works are often cryptic in their real meaning, the surrealist trip one takes to uncover it is half the reason for understanding his works.
In a mind boggling sculpture piece, Santos uses only two blocks of concrete and a resin-molded conjoined hand, and yet it creates a compelling narrative. These items, in and of themselves, do not present a story; when taken as a whole, however, they form a coherent narrative.
Perhaps the strongest source of information regarding this extraordinary work is the resin sculpture balanced perfectly between the two cement blocks. Easily noticeable is the usual anatomy of the hands; connected at the wrists, the hands face opposite directions. Though both of them are formed in a loose fist with their pointer fingers looped on the tiny metal protruding from the sides of the concrete blocks, they face different directions, with one of the hands looping its fingers from the bottom and the other from the top.
Like many of Santos’s works, this work contains both a multitude and an absence of any explicit meaning. The Drawing Room’s biography of Santos states that: “Whether it’s about telling stories through his figurative paintings and drawings or tracing histories through his still life compositions in collage, painting, assemblage, and installation works, their messages are oftentimes elusive and impenetrable, opening up possibilities for interpretation.”
Indeed, Dumb bells is crafted in such a way that any interpretation is just as valid as the last. Perhaps the strain visible on the hands as they grip onto their baggage is a metaphor for one’s refusal to dispose of their unnecessary burden – or it could equally be perseverance during hard times.
“Santos is known for presenting works that contradict the order of reality under a convincing veneer of naturalism,” online media platform Meer writes in its 25 November 2014 article ‘José Santos III: 2hide’. “Assemblage of objects, photography, digital intervention, deconstruction of the printed image, collage, and painting are amongst the avenues through which Santos has fleshed out expanded possibilities in image-making in recent years, picking up on a thread of interest in the eloquence of inanimate objects from early in the artist’s career.” (Hannah Valiente)","lot_group":"SCULPTURE","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":220000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":220000,"userBid":null,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":264352,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":63745,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/121/155/lot/125.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[220000,240000,260000,280000,300000,320000,340000,360000,380000,400000,450000,500000,550000,600000,650000,700000,750000,800000,900000,1000000,1100000,1200000,1300000,1400000,1500000,1600000,1700000,1800000,1900000,2000000,2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":124,"next":126,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}