![](https://karmakarma.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Schenck-High-Line-Art-2024_08_27-DSC_2675-1400x933.jpg)
Arthur Simms, A Totem for the High Line
on view at the High Line, New York
August 2024–July 2025
Arthur Simms creates elaborate assemblages of seemingly disparate found and personal objects that coalesce into intimate reflections on his lived experience, familial history, and spiritual reverence. Autobiographical in nature, his work incorporates trinkets, materials more likely found in a hardware store than an art supply shop, and objects gifted by friends and loved ones looking to clean house and discard what they view as “junk.” Simms pairs these elements with deeply personal belongings such as tufts of his and his wife’s hair, keys, identification cards, and letters from his late mother. He then binds these discordant pieces together by meticulously wrapping them with twine, wire, or hemp rope—the latter, a symbolic reference to his Jamaican roots—to the point of near non-recognition. Simms’ practice is grounded in his cultural heritage and dual identity as both Jamaican and American; he uses his sculpture to narrate stories of personal identity, family, spiritual and physical journeys, emotional tensions, and nostalgia for home.
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