Exhibit explores the secret life of knick-knacks

Author: Colin Foss

Walking through the bottom floor of the main library, you might notice a strange phenomenon: inside glass cases, resting on largish pedestals, there are assortments of little trinkets, mundane baubles that seemingly hold no aesthetic value beyond the fact that they are presented much like some famous author's first manuscript and protected like the queen's jewels. A nearby plaque helps to explain why such treatment is given to these banal objects d'art.

Director of the Middlebury College Museum of Art and Walter Cerf Professor Richard Saunders and the students of his 2006 first-year seminar, Searching for America in Contemporary Visual Culture, are behind this exhibition of unlikely art. The class focused on the visual portrayal of American culture through objects found in any common American home and the special value that Americans give to these objects.

The exhibit supposes that household "things" are relevant to us as art not because of their intrinsic value, but instead because of the exceptional insight they give us into the desires of American consumers.

In his explanation of the choice objects in the exhibit Saunders writes, "Much less obvious, however, are the factors that underlie these buying decisions. Most of what we acquire is not literally necessary to survive, as it is niether food, clothing, nor shelter. In fact, some of these purchases may have much more to do with our own self-image, a longing for identity with a group and the need to personalize our environment. Some of these complicated and overlapping motivations are explored here in a visual snapshot of America in 2006."

Throughout the exhibit room, there are red folders that are marked in curvy type "Searching for America," and bearing the appearance of a photo album or even a scrapbook - two objects commonly found lying around American households. Instead of finding inside an account of a particular family trip, there is an itemized list of the objects in the exhibit, along with extensive commentary on their significance. The traditional history of Easter, for example, accompanies the description of a large Easter bunny statue that would stand in one's front yard for passers-by to see. The history of this image seems out of place in this exhibit; the true iconography of each object is lost as it is assimilated into modern American culture, given cute whiskers, and forced to cradle a pastel egg in its arm.

Professor Saunders and his class are aware of the evolution of tradition into commercialism. On close inspection, you can see that each object in the collection - from the birdfeeder lighthouse to the vacuum cleaner cover that resembles a little maid - still carries its price tag. Even the pragmatic value of some objects is lost, as is the case with the rain gauge whose base is water-soluble.

The aesthetic value of these objects is the key to understanding why anyone would want to buy anything that has lost all of its practicality and its traditional significance. All of these objects represent a cultural identity that buyers want to feel a part of. The American desire to possess is reflected in the fact that we need separate storage facilities to stash our stuff when our home becomes overburdened.

Possession and forgotten tradition is nowhere more perfectly balanced than in one item in particular on display in this exhibit: the "maid" vacuum cleaner cover. As the object's description explains, this cover "gives the luxury of a maid without having to employ one," a practice with has indeed fallen out of feasibility for most households. The cover also allows the vacuum cleaner to be left out of a closet, which frees up storage space for the ever-increasing volume of domestic trinkets.

"Searching for American" succeeds in raising questions of contemporary American identity and its provenance, while emphasizing the rise of consumerism and its effect. We take an item, discard its traditional value, sometimes lose sight of its purpose, and eventually transform it into a trinket. Taking their part in the metamorphosis of American identity, Saunders and his class take it one step further in putting these trinkets under glass cases and transforming them into art.

Searching for America is on display in the Harmon Periodicals Reading Room in the Main Library until March 25th.