Judith Scott has historically been categorized as an “Outsider Artist.”

But in recent years Scott’s place in the art world has shifted as she gains recognition from the elite "insiders." As to the inside of her sculptures, oftentimes (as is the case with this one) no one knows what is inside. Well, that’s actually not *quite* true - a few of Judith’s artworks have been X-rayed to try to figure out what is underneath their mummy-like wrappings. This one, however, is not such an object.

Scott has often been compared to a spider: wrapping up objects into lumpy sculptures, as though swaddling the inner thing, or setting it aside for a snack. While that creepy-crawly quality doesn’t hold true across the board, in this case it does seem to stick (hehe). This is an unusually monochromatic work by the artist. For the most part, Scott experimented with lots of colors and textures, playing with layers and offsetting tones against each other. The white material used here more closely resembles an arachnid creation. 

On a more sinister level, some think of Scott’s wrapped works as referring to her institutionalized childhood. Born with Down syndrome, and becoming deaf at a young age, Scott spent more than 3 decades apart from her family, before her twin sister, Joyce, removed her from being institutionalized. This particular object was made less than 10 years after Scott’s departure, and the off-white color feels very sanitary and hospital-like. That said, we are left with no guidelines from the artist herself for how to interpret the work.

Without the artist’s guidance, I like to think of this sculpture as a kind of egg, containing a mystical creature waiting to burst forth and bring as much color into the world as Judith did.