This sculpture is made from shaped wood elements joined together and unified by a coat of black paint. The combination of curved and geometric forms evokes the increasing urbanization and construction in 20th-century New York City, where the natural form of the land and rivers was reshaped into the manmade global city of today. Sculptor Louise Nevelson considered herself “an architect of shadows” and often reused wood discarded from construction sites found in her neighborhood. She lived on East 30th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan when this piece was made.