Cold War exhibit features nickels

A contemporary art exhibit involving 50-thousand nickels is underconstruction in eastern Iowa that tries to put the Cold War in perspective.Each nickel has the red head of a matchstick glued to it and each nickel isbeing glued to a platform in a grid pattern at the Davenport Museum of Art.Museum curator Michelle Robinson says each nickel represents a tank from theformer Soviet Union while each matchhead represents that tank’s firepower.Robinson says construction on the work of art began in late September and itis slow going due to the nature of the work — gluing down thousands ofnickels in precise lines.Robinson says the exhibit, “The Reason for the Neutron Bomb,” is supposed toopen this weekend.The 25-hundred dollars worth of nickels will eventually fill a horizontalplatform that measures 14-by-38 feet. It’s part of a contemporary artexhibit the likes of which Robinson says has never been seen before ineastern Iowa.