Spy+Decoder+Ring

Date: 1995
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2002/2002.72.4_2a.jpg&max=460 width="285" height="311" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=71709"]] || Title: **Spy Decoder Ring**

Artist: **Barbara Walter** Born: Clarendon Hills, Illinois 1952

Medium: cast, stamped, and fabricated sterling silver with plastic Dimensions: 1 5/8 x 1 1/4 x 5/8 in. (4.1 x 3.2 x 1.6 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Sylvia and Eric Elsesser

Accession: 2002.72.4 || “The myriad connotations of words allow messages to be misconstrued---often, as in puns, with humorous results.” Artist quoted in //Touch of a Finger; Turn of a Phrase: Ring Toys of Barbara Walter//
 * Luce Center Quote: **

Spy Decoder Ring recalls the plastic decoder rings that once came in cereal boxes. Here the artist plays with the notion of espionage as a romantic childhood fantasy. If the author and the recipient of the encoded message have the same cipher, or code, each may translate the written text into understandable phrases. The four figures on the ring function as handles to move the alphabet around, but, dressed in business clothes, they also call to mind the spies who blend in with ordinary citizens.
 * Luce Center Label: **


 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page Artist Statement Barbara Walter website
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