Strange art

Art from old gloves and postcards? I have my doubts when I enter the contemporary art exhibition at our local Art Museum. Don’t think I came here out of my own free will. No, my art teacher made me. Sure enough, in the entrance hall there is a bunch of black gloves scattered on the wall. This work of art is called “In the wind”. Well, yes, I can see the point. The gloves do look like they are flying in the air. (1)

I pick up an exhibition guide that lists all the works on show here and gives information on the artist, Anu Tuominen. Let’s see… She has received several awards for her work. She creates art from everyday objects such as plastic cups and clothes pegs. It says here that she constantly collects material for her art from nature, flea markets and yard sales. Often the objects have been rejected by other people because they are, for example, broken. So basically it’s a question of recycling and reusing existing things. Environmentally friendly art? Sounds a bit boring actually but since I’m already here I might just as well take a look. (2, 3)

The first thing I see looks like a bowl of meatballs from a distance. When I get closer I realise that the meatballs are balls of brown thread placed in a white bowl. Then there’s a cup filled with what looks like sugar or salt and a spoon standing in it. This is titled “The skier”. What on earth? These are dishes, they have nothing to with sports. What am I not getting here? I’d better take a closer look. Now I understand, there’s a small image of a skier on the spoon, and the salt is the snow. Clever. Colourful plastic clothes pegs on a clothes line, plastic cups in different colours stacked on shelves; the artist plays with the colours and shades of the objects. It is mentioned in the guide that in addition to her handcrafted art she also likes to form sentences on huge pieces of white paper. I don’t think I would call these poetry though, perhaps word ‘art’ would be a more suitable term. (4)

When I walk through the exhibition I notice that certain elements are repeated: organising the objects by colour, the balls of thread and the clever titles. She combines things unexpectedly with interesting results. Every once in a while I recognise an object that dates back to my childhood. I get flashbacks of drinking granny’s black currant juice from an orange cup and playing dominoes with my best friend. Happy memories! I stop by a “painting” made of old pencils. This is certainly turning rubbish into art. The material for this could easily be found in the rubbish bins of our school. Maybe that’s the point my art teacher was trying to make, she is really into environmental issues such as recycling. (5–7)

As I leave the museum I’m still not quite convinced what I saw was art but the exhibition made me smile and look at old things with new eyes. Could I create a piece of art out of those odd socks in my sock drawer? (8)