Pittsburgh Center for the Arts exhibit looks through 24th-century eyes
Consider it a museum within a museum of sorts. James Thurman's installation "McMuseum of Anthropological Archaeology" has left quite a few visitors to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts scratching their heads lately, wondering what exactly it is all about.
"The 'McMuseum of Anthropological Archaeology' is a fictitious museum of the 24th century that has humorously misinterpreted these 'ancient artifacts of the 21st century,'" the artist says, referring to the various objects contained in his solo exhibit, "Ancient 21st Century Art-i-facts."
"The artifacts are actually components of an art installation I have created that serve as a critique of contemporary consumerism," Thurman says. "The imaginary future I have created as a setting for the McMuseum is one where corporations have assumed control of all aspects of society and are using the discovery of these artifacts to support their consumption-based society."
Thus, all of the objects Thurman created for the exhibit are comprised of relevant recycled materials, such as paper, books, flatware and dishes, and reconstituted into other, similarly usable items, like chairs, tables and more flatware, and even wearable items like necklaces and bracelets. All through a laborious process of laminating, then lathe cutting, grinding and polishing.
Thurman, 38, is an assistant professor at the College of Visual Arts and Design of the University of North Texas, in Denton, Texas.
Many of his unique works, such as the plates and jewelry, are made from recycled books. "I began recycling books into art in 2001 when I was invited to create awards for an environmental-design symposium, but I have been using other kinds of recycled materials in my work since I was in college at Carnegie Mellon from 1989 to 1993."
Thurman says there is a whole community of "Artist Book" makers, but, "to the best of my knowledge, I developed the process of layering and carving recycled paper that I use predominately for the plates in the exhibition."
Although he is as much an artist as he is a skilled craftsman, Thurman finds using humor in his work to be both inviting for his audience and somewhat subversive.
"The overall format, that of a natural-history museum, is a standardized method of display that most everyone is familiar with, so that also helps draw people in to the overall story," he says, adding that he got the idea from reading author-illustrator David Macaulay's book, "The Motel of Mysteries."
Written in 1979 as a response to the King Tut exhibit that traveled around to many of the nation's museums in the mid to late 1970s, the book details a fictional futuristic discovery of a motel that future archaeologists misinterpret to be a funerary and temple complex.
With Thurman's works, usefulness and function of an object are subjective. For example, as much as the easy chair made from books looks to be the perfect place to cuddle up and read your favorite novel, you probably wouldn't consider actually doing so. And as for eating off the plates, well, that seems even more impossible.
Thurman says these works contain actual and metaphoric relationships to ideas of recycling and sustainability.
"The paper involved has been directly recycled as new objects," he says. "What is created emphasizes its origins both literally and conceptually: vessels of recycled material that embody the principles of sustainability."
The largest gain from this process is not the physical reduction of landfill, but the infiltration of these ideas through unconventional and unexpected channels. Traditional woodturning and metalsmithing techniques, such as metal spinning and casting, are used in conjunction with atypical techniques, such as lathe-turned laminated paper and water-jet cutting.
Expected and unexpected materials are combined in the same piece, such as rubber gasket material as the edging of spun aluminum or lathe-turned paper components.
Thurman contends that his format of recognizable functional objects, such as vessels or wearables, provides an entry point for a broad and diverse audience.
"By having an initial reference point, those interacting with the work can compare their previous experiences with similar types of objects (plates, bowls, jewelry) with my work and gain further insight into its physical and conceptual layers," he says.
"As a conduit for these ideas, my objects can foster a unique dialogue that could be accomplished in no other way: I am able to speak through the objects while the audience is free to guide that conversation in directions important to themselves. Reflection about that journey facilitates a change in perspective that then informs future action."
Additional Information:
'James Thurman: Ancient 21st Century Art-i-facts'
When: Through Jan. 24. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays
Admission: $5 suggested donation; free for Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts members
Where: Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside
Details: 412-361-0873 or Web site
