Metamorphosis In the 1970s, Feldman completed several installations portraying different stages of animal metamorphosis. These featured hybrid, mutant creatures, reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch's triptych
The Garden of Earthly Delights—rats transformed into fish, and turtles with human features. The small-scale sculptures were displayed in large clusters, their multitude invoking aggression and infestation.
Birds (1970), a cast metal flock of dead birds, preceded
Kiki Smith's
Jersey Crows (1995) while
Metamorphic Turtles (1973–75) anticipated Smith's
Sirens and Harpies (2002).
War Toys and War Toys Redux War Toys (1992) is a series created in response to the first
Gulf War. Feldman was incensed by the tone of admiration she heard in President George Bush's voice when he referred to the
Patriot missile. These works mocked the allure of weaponry and perceived glory in violence. The
War Toys series relates to
Magdalena Abakanowicz's
War Games' sculptures (1989), giant monstrous weapons made of metal and wood. However, the scale and sensuality of Feldman's
War Toys strip them of power. The series is in the tradition of contemporary women artists' critique of war that entwines images of male sexuality and military aggression. Examples include
Nancy Spero's
The War Series (1966–70), a response to the Vietnam War, and
Judith Bernstein's
Iraq Travel Poster (1969).
War Toys Redux (2003) evoked a different kind of mutation: the metal sculptures represented a hybrid between organic and machine forms. This adaptation continued the series with a new medium, combining blown glass with steel armatures. The sensuality of soft, bulbous glass forms reinforced the vision of earlier
War Toys, effeminizing the objects of aggression and rendering them impotent.
Flasks of Fiction Feldman pioneered the technique of blowing glass into metal forms in the late 1990s. The first series of mostly hanging sculptures
Flasks of Fiction (1998–2001) were originally inspired by the lanterns in mosques Feldman visited while in Turkey. She said of these: “I combined glass and metal to suggest vulnerability and constraint as well as seduction.”
Flasks of Fiction aligns Feldman with Post-Minimalist sculptors, such as
Eva Hesse, who explored the inherent properties of materials and experimented with tension that results from binding bulging forms or upholding drooping forms. In
Flasks of Fiction, hardened materials such as glass and steel make explicit references to bodies and sexuality, making the viewer respond viscerally to the corporeal hybrids.
Large Sculpture Since 2003, Feldman has created a number of large-scale sculptures that embody her lifelong interest in process and materials. Combining metal and glass, organic forms and machine parts, aggression and vulnerability, such works as
Dyad (2003) and ''Jacob's Ladder'' (2011) refer to
Martin Puryear in scale and to
Louise Bourgeois in psychic intensity. == Exhibitions, collections, awards ==