For those of us struggling to cope with domestic clutter and detritus, and horrified by litter tossed by the side of the road, washing up on the beach, and orbiting in space, viewing art made from items destined for the dump is satisfying. Channeling the Dadaist movement of the early 1900s, and sharing an obsession with found objects and detritus, the artists in Left Behind breathe new life into old coins, fallen branches, crushed flowers, and fast food. Selected from contenders for NOT REAL ART’s biennial grant for their ecological bent and transformative spirit, they confront the excess of a consumer-driven society, advocate for marginalized laborers and endangered species, speak out against sexual violence and abuse, and explore the connections between objects, memory, and loss.
In 1913, Marcel Duchamp stunned the art world by presenting a bicycle wheel on a kitchen stool as a “readymade,” suggesting that art was an intuitive process and could practically make itself. Following up with a urinal and other household objects, he set the stage for Surrealism, Arte Povera, and Pop Art, inspiring a slew of conceptual artists to come. It might seem commonplace today to see a cow’s head in formaldehyde, or oranges and watermelons with sensors monitoring their decay in contemporary galleries and museums, but that wasn’t always the case. Challenging previous modes of aesthetics, the Dadaists raised questions about permanence, value, and craft and revolutionized the way art is made. Following the lead of their free-thinking predecessors, this month’s featured artists use everyday artifacts and debris as a launch point to tackle critical 21st-century issues, finding meaning and beauty in the process.
View Left Behind, then scroll down for details about the artists and their work.
Shrines and Installations
In her altar-like assemblage “Dim Gold,” Mandy Cano Villalobos stacks overturned tables, ironing boards, curtains, mops, and skates to convey the rootlessness she felt as the child of a military parent. Blending objects, lumber, and paint, Ruin Kenzie combines the language of abstraction with the human construct of time. Gathering scraps from garment factories and staining them with rusty railroad spikes, Jinseok Choi tells the stories of invisible immigrant labor in the installation “Before the Last Spike 2.” Design duo Ghost of a Dream collaged 30 years of exhibition catalogues and gallery invitations from previous inhabitants of the space onto the walls of MassArt in their site-specific project “Yesterday Was Here.” Honoring an African American convoy from WWII, Mark Anthony Wilson Jr. advocates for community action during times of crisis in the mixed-media installation “Red Ball Express.”
Reconstructed Portraits
Working with collage and photomontage, a number of artists in the show construct portraits from salvaged images and text. Dehejia Maat combines found photographs, news clippings, and textiles with insects to create a luminous portrait that invites interpretation. In his meticulously constructed portraits of Indigenous women who were victims of murder or sexual assault, Benjamin Timpson uses responsibly sourced butterfly wings to symbolize metamorphosis, fragility, and hope. Peter Leighton digitally collages vintage snapshots to create absurd scenarios reflecting the randomness of real life. Created from fabric, bubble mailers, and paint, Heidi Brueckner’s textural portrait of a woman she met on the Great Wall of China conveys her belief that observing others is a means of understanding ourselves.
Mixed Metaphors
Playing with multiple layers of meaning, Dakota Higgins combines images of the moon in flux with nachos, glitter, coins of states that used to be Mexico, and other objects to allude to cultural and political shifts. Azita Mireshghi’s startling transformation of recycled bullet casings into a necklace advocating for peace, and Star Trauth’s lush relief from manipulated plastic waste urge viewers to weigh the significance of the materials against the aesthetic objects they’ve become. “Crushed Tulips,” a Degas-style ballet dress by Sara Lynne Lindsay that decays over time, and Noah Scalin’s Audubon-inspired collage of an extinct passenger pigeon created from commercial stickers, reference items from the past while opening conversations about ecology, impermanence, and loss.
Objets Trouvés
Citing Arte Povera and feminism as influences, Merridawn Duckler puts her own spin on a vintage wedding cake topper and allows viewers to fill in the gaps. In his dystopian “Snack Wrap” series, Narongsukchai Tintamusik treats non-perishable food as a relic, contrasting Thai culinary traditions with those of a society on the verge of ecological collapse. Anwyn ilo embellishes a buffalo jaw from an oddity shop with tattoo-like drawings to share their love of nature and explore the magic of life and death. In “Collective I Dentity,” Linda Erzinger suspends bite guard molds and other dental supplies in resin to reflect on identity and self. Clare Burson probes the connections between objects and memory in her talisman-like assemblage “Keepsake–Yellow.”
All images published with permission of the artist(s); feature graphic for Left Behind: David Schwartz.