Memory Bomb
Steel, Iron, Music Box, Paint, 3’10" x 5’ x 72" Adam Walls, Pembroke, NC
Location: Green space beside fire department on Lee Street
This piece is very user friendly and interactive. Housed inside the opening is a music box which plays a lullaby. This music box is from the teddy bear which was passed down to me from my brother when I was very young; it's been an outdoor piece for over a year now, and it still works. Just as the memory of a wonderful meal or a favorite garden can be stirred by a familiar scent, so can memory be stirred by a sound. In this piece, a simple wind up music box is used to bring up memories of childhood, yet the image of this time-worn, dangerous- looking sculpture which emits this sound warns us that there is a price to be paid for some memories unwanted.
Adam Walls has graduated with a BFA in Art Education from Limestone College in Gaffney South Carolina in 1996 after which he taught art both privately and through the public school system in South Carolina. Adam's love of escapist fantasy was apparent in his drawings and paintings for several years, but after taking a ceramics course he found that depicting his love and inspiration could also exist in three dimensional forms.
Adam's love for construction and building sculptural forms lead him to leave education and to pursue his MFA in Sculpture from Winthrop University in Rock Hill SC in 2005. Since that time Adam's work has been shown in sculpture parks, universities, and in exhibitions across the country. Adam is currently head of Sculpture Program at UNC-Pembroke in Pembroke NC.