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Philly-based artist and mental health advocate Clancy Philbrick wants to make a replica of the FIFA World Cup trophy … using fingernails and toenails.
Let’s pause for a moment to let everyone’s stomachs get back into the right shape.
Philbrick wants to make a full-scale replica of the real 18 karat solid gold and green malachite trophy using his toe and fingernail clippings.
And yours, if you’re willing to provide them.
Philbrick is welcoming submissions from all over the world and has provided an address for where to send them in his announcement on Instagram and the project brief.
“Our nails will form a collective body of work, a ledger of labor and lives lived,” he said in his announcement video.
So far, Philbrick estimates he has between 6,000 and 8,000 nails collected, which he said is about half of what he needs. It helps that he’s been saving his own nail clippings for almost 10 years — eight years were for this project. Based on final amount estimates, Philbrick said the piece will most likely be an “exoskeleton” of nails, rather than completely filled with the clippings.
Nails have already been sent in from around the city and the country, and from as far away as Canada, Ecuador and Nicaragua.
He says the feedback he’s received so far has included being grossed out, paranoia about sharing DNA, people feeling self-conscious that their nails might be too disgusting to share and some admiration about what the project is really about.
The project isn’t just about making people retch involuntarily. Philbrick’s goal is to “invite reflection on what binds us: labor, play, struggle and what might be built from what we leave behind.”
“What I’m thinking about is like soccer/football as a representation for colonialism that follows the same sort of empire trade routes. And then nails as these ledgers of human labor, of human bodies, they all have their own stories. And they are very tactile, they’re what they’re what’s left behind,” Philbrick explained.
“So drawing parallels between that and in conversations around global labor markets, the wealth divide, classism, making something that’s more for the the people that put in the the labor that holds up everything else, whether it’s the World Cup or, in more of a global way, with just the World Cup as a symbol.”
Philbrick’s art often incorporates found objects and trash. He said his work “investigates the transformative power of community, cultural dimensions of sports and play, and disassembling harmful patriarchal norms.” His work also tries to offer new rituals and be part of the solution.
Unsurprisingly, toenails and fingernails are not an art medium Philbrick is familiar with, so he’s also experimenting with how to render it into an accurate depiction of the trophy. The closest thing he can compare it to is sea oats, the seeds of a grass that cover sand dunes in the Southeast U.S., Caribbean and Mexico.
When not making art, Philbrick also organizes and moderates Sad Boy Fanatics Group, a peer support group for sports fans that helps them talk through the tough times, as well as the jubilant ones. After the Eagles’ 2023 Super Bowl loss, he contributed to Billy Penn’s recovery guide with advice on how Bird’s fans can pick themselves up after a sorrowful Super Bowl Sunday.
The current tournament trophy — with an estimated value in the tens of millions — has been awarded to the men’s national team that wins the global competition since 1970. Brazil was permanently given its predecessor, the Jules Rimet Trophy, for their third World Cup victory in ‘70.
The trophy is currently being toured around the three host nations for this summer’s tournament: Canada, Mexico and the U.S. It’s scheduled to be in Philly on May 21. Billy Penn’s World Cup guide to the six games in Philly offers a crash course in what teams and players you’ll likely see this summer, how you can watch the games and which local soccer players could make the United States team for the competition.
To keep things sanitary, Philbrick has laid out rules for the for those willing to give him their keratin contributions:
- Clean your nails before you clip and send them. Make sure they’re completely dry.
- Put the clippings in a sealed bag or envelope
- Include a note with your name, country, and whether or not you want your contributions to be credited or anonymous. You can also include a sentence in the note, if you’d like.
Philbrick said he’s still looking for ways and partners to present the trophy, once it’s completed.
For Philly locals who don’t want to use up a stamp, or end up on some weird Postal Service watch list, Philbrick is hosting a gathering at Rittenhouse Square on Saturday, April 11, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.