POTD: Tob’ias

Tob’ias
Saulsbury Wash, Nevada
2017

Out in the middle of nowhere on Highway 6 in Nevada is this thing, this vernacular objet d’art if you will. It looked like it might at one time been half of a steel tank that was cut in half vertically for some reason and then tipped on its side. That brought to mind a number of questions. One was, where is the other half? If it was cut in half at this location, where was the other half and why did they leave this half behind? If it was cut in half somewhere else and then hauled to this spot, what the heck was its intended use? With the open top I thought perhaps it was meant to hold water to fill what looked like a wooden water trough in the foreground. But there were no openings anywhere on its sides to connect a pipe or hose leading to the trough. And if you were going to use a steel tank for that purpose, why would you cut it that way and tip it on its side? And what were those boards bolted to the side for anyway? Whatever its original purpose, it appears to now only serve as a canvas for traveling graffiti artists–and of course a subject for curious photographers.