This intricately handmade sculpture, John Grade’s latest, called Collector, began in Grade’s studio and hangs in the clean white space of Davidson Contemporary. It bears his signature sense of almost too-exquisite craftsmanship. But it will not remain spotless.

After Saturday, it will be submerged in Puget Sound for a while, until oysters attach to it. Then, for the final stage, Grade will mount it to his truck and drive it through the dusty Southwest. Grade often pushes the rare comparison of Northwest and Southwest, possibly the two most climatically disparate yet linked regions in the US.

Collector’s process is like a Simon Starling project in Toronto at the Harbourfront Centre Power Plant, but with very different intentions. While Grade’s object is semi-fragile and his results are only loosely predicted, the British artist sunk a steel reproduction of a Henry Moore bronze into Lake Ontario as a commentary on foreign influence and a way of representing the nationalistic tension that made Moore a controversial postwar figure in the city. (Taxpayers had refused to fund the installation of one of Moore’s sculptures outside Toronto’s city hall because he wasn’t Canadian; private donors purchased it anyway, and it has become a prized possession of the city.)

In the several months it was underwater, Starling’s steel version of Warrior with Shield (1954) was invaded by the Eastern European zebra mussel, a non-native species that has invaded the waters of the Great Lakes since coming over from the Black Sea in the ballast water of ships around 20 years ago. Last I heard, the Art Gallery of Ontario planned to take the piece (commissioned by the Power Plant) into its collection, which also includes Warrior with Shield.

Will anyone take in Grade’s study? I like its vulnerability and openness much better than Starling’s overly determined symbolism, and I’m curious what the trip will do to it. See Collector in its infancy through Saturday at DC.