Design Observer

Dangerous Beauty: The Art of the Shiv

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Photographs by Brett Yasko

shiv








Materials:
Stainless steel tablespoon; handle wrapped with upholstery.

Backstory:
At its core here is a spoon, stolen from the staff dining room at Rahway, where, as in many federal penitentiaries, inmates were restricted to using plastic flatware. Stamped "State of NJ," the spoon likely to have been sharpened on the cement floor or wall of a cell. The bowl of the spoon was filled with wax and then wrapped with upholstery thread (taken from the furniture shop, where it was used to re-stitch chair cushions) thereby forming a generously-scaled handle.