Untitled (Battery) — 2026. ~4”x24”x5”. Steel, Spider-Tack, bearing ball, gravity

Untitled (Battery) emerges from the wall as a vertical pair of found steel sconce fittings whose openings face each other. From the top opening, a viscous gold substance oozes towards the bottom orifice. 

A polymerized pine rosin, Spider-Tack is used by strongmen to lift large, spherical Atlas stones. Pitchers in Major League Baseball use it to afford a better grip on the baseball than pine rosin alone can provide. In 2021 MLB cracked down on its use, classifying it as an illegal ‘foreign substance’ and instituting ‘foreign substance checks,’ where umpires scour the body and uniform of pitchers to confirm they have no concealed grip-aids.

The spider-tack was liquefied and cast into the steel fitting, a steel bearing-ball placed behind the casting. The extreme viscosity and stickiness of the Spider-Tack does battle with the gravity the bearing-ball enacts upon it: over the course of a week, the ‘drip’ descends no more than a couple of inches. If and when gravity eventually prevails, the second steel fitting is prepared to receive it. 

In baseball, a pitcher/catcher duo is frequently referred to as a ‘battery.’