NARRATOR:

Painting to Hammer a Nail In is a work by Yoko Ono. The work began as a short text from the Instruction for Paintings series created by the artist in 1961. She then turned the text into a participatory installation in 1966 and made this bronze version in 1988 based on the participatory piece. The work measures 29.5 centimetres high, 22.8 centimetres wide, and 9.5 centimetres deep.

The work is a sculpture made of a bronze panel that has dozens of hammered nails and dozens of nail holes on the surface. The grey panel is connected to a tack hammer with a thin metal chain. Depending on the curatorial design, the hammer may be hung at an angle on the nails on the panel or hung vertically on a wall-mounted hook next to the panel.

There are approximately sixty or seventy nails and an additional thirty or forty nail holes scattered on the panel. The nails, which are metallic brown in colour, have been hammered into the panel at different angles to different depths. The nails appear to be of various heights, and most of them are slanted or crooked. The bottom edge of the panel is installed with a metal chain that is suspended in the air. The other end of the chain is connected to a bronze hammer at the end of the handle. The hammer is of metallic brown colour, its head has a square flat end and a straight tapered end. Carved into the side of the hammer’s handle is the name of the work: ‘Painting to Hammer a Nail In’.

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