The Precious Object

I went to the Cargill Hall within the Central Public Library to view the exhibit The Precious Object. The interesting exhibit “ explores issues related to nature, simulation, craft, collecting, and fantasy” by 14 Minnesota artists. Eah artists artwork is very different from the next; from the idea they are portraying, to the matreials used (carcusses to felt), to the designs (sculptures, paintings, drawings, etc). But in all of their differenent “ideas, perspectives, and personal histories,” the artists have a common theme: Take a second to step away from the digital age, look around and think of the precious tactile objects in our lives (Artmn, 2009).

Go to this website to get exhibit information. http://mnartists.org/event.do?rid=241460

The first piece of artwork I enjoyed was "Where did you come from? Memoirs from the Past Present, and Future, or, the Underlying Connections that Facilitate our Everyday Architecture" by Andy Ducett in 2006. It is a large drawing about 3 feet by 3 feet, done with pencil, pen and colored pencil on paper. Ducett's drawing depicts real and imaginary events while he was at the University of Illinois for five months. Ducettt said, "I wanted this drawing to behave like the inside of my head, showing how memories are ordered, structured, and stored on top of each other" (Henneping Library didactic). What I like about the drawing is that there are so many tiny details in the drawings, I could spend hours looking for them, like searching for Waldo. I like the humor in the drawing, for example a star wars seen and a desk lamp lighting up the streets. It reminds me of a kids creative mind going all over the place. And along with Ducett's explanation of his art, it reminds me of just sitting back and daydreaming; so many ideas and dreams all stacked and intertwining with each other. Which brings me along to his next piece of artwork I liked, "it Could Have Happened Yesterday or it Could have Happpened Today" done in 2009".

The artwork is a college handpicked items stacked together. Some of the items are:record player, desk lamps, sport trophies, animal figurines, weather vain, skateboard, and a scale on the floor set at 280 pounds. The items recall his childhood in Minnesota, departure, and return. Like the previous drawing, he does not display time in logical sequences, but bundles them together. I like this piece like the other, because their is so much detail at every angle I kept trying to discover something new within it. The artwork reminds me of the same reason I scrapbook-to put together lots of loose memories into one book/piece and say "this is me, what's important to me and why I am the way I am".

The third piece of artwork I liked was "Mimicry" by Alison Hiltner in 2009. She used wax, clay, and artificial flowers to create a large flower buds on the floor and climbing up the walls. Hiltner wanted to give life to mundane things as she wondered what the new life forms would look like. I liked this because the flowers were beautiful, but yet did make me a little timid feeling to walk by them. The flowers reminded me of the carnivore flowers from Jumanji. The flower roots looked like spider legs that allowed them to crawl up the walls on their own; looking pretty to trick the passerby into getting close before it jumps out.

The fourth piece of artwork I liked was "54847" by Ginny Maki in 2009. Maki had three residents of Iron River, WI (assuming zipcode 54847) to draw maps of their town with a writing utensil on white felt. She asked them to make it personal, drawing homes and businesses with personal connections. The felt maps where cut apart, threaded and twined together with metal and hung from the ceiling. It reminded me of the Wizard of Oz, houses flying in the air jumbled together as if in a tornado. Maki's artistic objective is to explore the different "relationships formed by a common site and how the personal behavior is recorded through each map" (Hennepin Library didactic). I liked this piece because it reminds me that three people can have a same concept and perceive it different ways, yet the three people are still bound together.



I had never been to the Central Public Library, I was amazaed at the beauty of the building when searching for it in my car. It looked like a castle next to all the other brick scenery around it. Walking into the building of the Central Public Library reminded me of a futuristic heaven. It was sunny the day I went, the sun beamed in through all sides of the glass windows to the sides and above. The rays shined right though the glass elevators and glass guard rails. When going up the escalator, all I could see was the bright blue sky before me; the escalator steps appeared to just fall of the top.