Our New Concept in Art (A New Portfolio)

Contemplating Art at the BMOCA. Boulder, Colorado, 2015 (An iPhone 6 image)

My wife came up with this one as we were visiting the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) yesterday.

Here is how it happened…

First, we worked on understanding and appreciating  the main exhibit, Substrate, by a group of seven very accomplished artists. Once we had seen and digested the different installations, we wandered into the empty upstairs meeting room that looked as if it had, perhaps, just held a small conference the day before. There were a few tables and chairs in the center, and some other objects scattered about.

Thus:

The Trinity Conference Room. BMOCA, Boulder, Colorado, 2015 (An iPhone 6 image)

“Objects”…yes, indeed, and this is where it gets really interesting…

In one corner, bathed in the white, snow-augmented light coming in from the large windows, were three empty sculpture pedestals, painted white, and left haphazardly behind.

Again, thus:

White Trinity, #2. BMOCA, Boulder, Colorado, 2015 (An iPhone 6 image)

“The Trinity”, said Maria in a mock serious tone, as if she had just discovered yet another art exhibit.

Then I noticed an interesting parallel on the other, darker, side of the room–three black waste baskets set together.

To wit:

Black Trinity, #1. BMOCA, Boulder, Colorado, 2015 (An iPhone 6 image; Image credit: María Rosa Fusté)

“The Dark Trinity”, I replied, just as not-seriously. “Look at how the three pedestals form a trinity bathed in righteous white light, while we have over here, three black wastebaskets set against the darkest wall of the room. A jolting contrast and unusual balance and juxtaposition.”

The profound multiple meanings of this inadvertent “art installation” we had discovered were mind blowing. There were obvious religious (Christian, at least) overtones to the array of objects…White Trinity versus Dark Trinity…Christ versus the Devil…Salvation versus Eternal Damnation…Purity versus Sin, and so on.

But was there some sort of subtle additional social commentary? Perhaps a statement about the past and current influence of race and racism in this country? The darker-skinned of our population set against the dark wall versus the lighter-skinned dominant group set against the sunshine and bathed in white light…one group shunted aside and oppressed versus the other group set out for proud public display…

Or, were we also seeing, perhaps, allusions to the film, The Matrix? Or, maybe an allusion to the first nuclear bomb explosion–the Trinity test site?

What other layers of meaning had the artist hidden in this installation?

Of course, all this was pure farce. These were just random objects, randomly placed, in a random room that was then not being used for some random reason. Pure random randomness. The position of the three white pedestals and the three black trash cans was entirely coincidental. But, it could certainly be interpreted as very high-brow art!

Hot damn, Dilbert, it was art!

Thus our “new concept in art” portfolio that we will be working on. I can’t wait to build up our pile of pilfered and profound images as we visit museums everywhere, photographing the non-exhibit detritus laying about and around the actual exhibits. The point of our work: art is everywhere–you don’t even have to try to arrange anything in any special way. With the right perspective, explanation and interpretation, you can give even randomness an incredibly profound sense of meaning. Just tie things together with the camera, use a few sophisticated words, and you’ve got it!

Hmmm…A question for you, then: If art can be discovered in such a random way, what kind of meaning is left in those installations that were deliberately constructed or placed on the walls of the museum by real, hard-working and starving, artists?

What does it all mean, Beeblebrox?