Pareidolia
Picking out shapes in clouds (or in this case melted aluminum) is compelling because our brains can recognize faces and other familiar objects. This is a phenomenon called pareidolia. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet asks Polinius,
Do you see a yonder cloud that’s almost in the shape of a camel?
Many of the objects invite us to draw our own conclusion about what we see and feel in artifacts shown throughout the exhibition.
Clouds
Smoke
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Pink Poodle
Melted aluminum, painted in pink enamel on wood base.
13H x 9L in.
Giddy Up
Melted aluminum, wire and wooden dowel, painted with enamel and clear polyurethane paint, on wood base.
14H x 28W in.
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Puff
Melted aluminum composite, coated in enamel and clear polyurethane paint, on wood base.
11H x 15W in.
I think it’s interesting how so many of these pieces really remind me of the many times I have looked at the clouds. Hoping to see something. Daydreaming. In moments of joy, love, pain, suffering, but always looking to the sky, or the heavens hoping to see something that would take me out of my own head for a moment in time.
Anonymous
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Mr. Magoo
Melted aluminum and fabricated sheet aluminum, painted in enamel, on wood base.
11H x 11W in.
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Mr. Magoo was a cartoon character introduced in 1949, and inspired this object from the shape of melted aluminum found.
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He was an elderly man who usually got into trouble as a result of his extreme near-sightedness, compounded by his stubborn refusal to admit a problem.
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Is humankind being shortsighted and refusing to admit the problems of global change that confront us?
Frog
Aluminum painted in enamel.
11H x10W in.
In this object titled “Frog”, the artist interprets that the melted aluminum may represent a flattened frog - one of the casualties of increased sedimentation due to habitat destruction from uncontrolled wildfires and the resulting erosion.
What do you see?