A new exhibition at Rollins Museum of Art focuses on the art…of words! Critical Reading explores, among other things, the intersection of the information we consume and who we are, as individuals and as a cultural zeitgeist.
The exhibition blends painting, sculpture, photos, and “artist books,” a creation that bridges the medium of the book with visual artistic expression.
According to the museum’s website, the exhibition “explores the ways in which text—whether literally or metaphorically—functions as image and vice versa.”
Ena Heller is the Bruce A. Beal Director at the museum. During a recent tour of the gallery, she spoke about the installation asking big questions, while also providing an interactive component for answers.
Heller said the exhibition asks, in part, “How do we get knowledge?”
“How do we relate to reading? How do we relate to the news today? Of course, that’s something really, really important,” she added.
“Today, we live in this world that we are bombarded by information 24/7 in various forms,” said Heller. “Reading is not what it used to be. It doesn't just relate to that traditional book that you take in your hands and read, but you consume information and knowledge from different sources.”
Critical Reading takes a look at ways we receive knowledge, interact with it, and whether or how we incorporate it into our world view.
Heller pointed out that we as individuals are always a part of how we process what we learn. For instance, one sculpture prompts reflection both literally and figuratively, with a mirrored component. It’s called “El Odioso Olor de la Verdad” or “The Odious Smell of Truth.” It refers to a statement attributed to Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
“You can’t look at the work without seeing your own reflection,” said Heller. “It is ultimately we who shape the way that we understand the world. And we should never forget that, right? Because we shouldn’t consume information without thinking about it.”
The interactive part of Critical Reading springs from an exhibit of twenty book covers rendered as portraits by still life artist Richard Baker. Rollins professors were asked to send their own copies of one book that changed their lives to Baker, from which he created each portrait.
For interactive purposes, random pages from these books are printed on a large piece of paper. “We invite our visitors to take this and alter it in some way,” said Heller. “You can redact some words and create your own narrative, or pick some words and create your own narrative, [or] you can draw on it.”
The visitor-created art is then exhibited. Another option for interaction is a board full of magnetic poetry phrases taken directly from those same books, and visitors can compose their own poems from them.
Heller says the interactive component has become very important at Rollins Museum of Art, as well as at museums across the country, especially with younger people.
“They have a very clear idea of creating their own narrative. I think they're much more skeptical about offered wisdom from a ‘pedestal.’ And I think part of it is having access to different ways of getting information. So there isn't just one authority like in the ‘olden times,’ right? There was the book and then there was a professor,” Heller said. “And now you have so many different options for looking at this stuff and I think that's part of what we're doing here, enabling those other voices.”
