This piece is from a collection by sculptor David Smith (1906-1965) entitled 'Cubes and Anarchy' (The collection is quite aptly named, I thought, to be compared to The Road). He was an American Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter best known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures. Perhaps his most revolutionary concept was that the only difference between painting and sculpture was the addition of a third dimension; he declared that the sculptor's "conception is as free as a that of the painter. His wealth of response is as great as his draftsmanship." His sculpting works were an expression of the energy he had after working as a welder during the Second World War. I find the precarious position of the cubes speaks volumes to many causes, not just The Road. In respects to the novel, the cubes represent the people still surviving on the barren Earth. Perhaps they don't want to be, but they are reliant on each other to stay alive; no cube could 'stand' without the cube below it. The precarious positioning and angel of the tower, I find, represents the fragile social structure exhibited in the novel. The thin disk at the base of the sculpture seems to be the anchoring element and the slight movement of it could possibly send the whole tower tumbling down, just as any wrong move from the man or the boy in The Road could send their small place in the world into ruins.
I remember studying this, along with other Smith sculptures, in my Art History 100 class in college. I liked Smith, but I liked Serra (see Hayley's image) even better0--less polish, more rust. I agree with your interpretation of the precariousness--good connection. Spoken like a future art history major!
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