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- "Hovor" by El Anatsui
The staggering amount of detritus in the modern world provides boundless opportunities to make unique works of art. So the prosaic title "Tossed: Art From Discarded, Found and Repurposed Materials" doesn't reveal much. Nor does it prepare visitors for the range and ingenuity of creations in the exhibition now at the Middlebury College Museum of Art.
"Tossed" is a relatively modest show with only 18 pieces, and its spacious arrangement, designed by curator Ken Pohlman, makes it comfortable to navigate. "You can find your own space with an object," he said.
That's particularly necessary with the large-scale "Hovor," by Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui. On loan from the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the tapestry of crumpled liquor bottle caps and copper wire measures 240 by 216 inches. Though delivered flat and rolled up like a carpet, according to Pohlman, it is meant to be draped in irregular folds. Against a gray wall, the multicolored "Hovor" shimmers and seems to undulate. As a museum description notes, the piece "echoes the structure of Ashanti ceremonial cloth weavings."
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- "No. 382 of the Poly S. Tyrene Memorial Maritime Museum" by Duke Riley
The artist, now nearing 80, has been employing metal refuse for decades, and his stunning artworks are collected in museums internationally. Within them, Anatsui embeds a statement about the effects of colonialism and globalization. In April, Time magazine included Anatsui among the 100 most influential people of 2023.
Born almost 40 years later in Benin, Romuald Hazoumè also merges African tradition with contemporary reality. His wall-hung "No Man's Land" mimics Yoruban wooden masks, but its "face" is a plastic gasoline container. The protruding handle and spout suggest nose and mouth, respectively. Red and black plastic beads are draped over the "head," and a brush at the top represents hair.
This faux mask is witty, but its reference is harrowing. "Hazoumè's use of these jugs references the widespread and dangerous practice of Beninese smugglers," reads the description. They fill the containers with cheap Nigerian fuel and illegally transport it across the border to Benin on bicycles and motorcycles.
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- "Wandering" by Ruby Chishti
"No Man's Land" is one of 13 pieces in the exhibit purchased by or gifted to the museum. Most of the others are by American artists who in various engaging ways mingle traditional art forms with evidence of environmental and cultural devastation.
New York City-based Duke Riley transforms plastic he finds washed up on the shoreline with "scrimshaw," à la the carvings on bones and teeth by 19th-century sailors. His wryly titled "No. 382 of the Poly S. Tyrene Memorial Maritime Museum" was formerly a Shell engine oil container. Riley painted the jug a yellowed white, then adorned it with a black line illustration. Despite its delicacy, the drawing makes clear who is responsible for this single-use plastic item.
Khalil Chishtee's dramatic installation of three human figures — and telephones — is crafted from plastic bags and underscores the notion that "today's trends are tomorrow's trash," as the wall text reads. Titled "24/7," it stands adjacent to a winged cherub made from a discarded military jacket by Ruby Chishti. The Pakistani-born couple now live in Brooklyn.
"Tossed" includes just one Vermont artist, Panton metal sculptor Eben Markowski. "Owl" — on loan from Jess and Alex Crothers — is a raptor made of rusted barbed wire, perched on a tall steel pole. Markowski typically uses discarded metal from industrial and agricultural sources.
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- "Owl" by Eben Markowski
Museum director Richard Saunders suggested including a Vermont artist, Pohlman said, "and I immediately thought of Eben. I loved his elephant at the airport." (The 10-foot-tall "Gravity" was briefly in residence at Burlington International Airport in 2016.)
It was Saunders, too, who invited Pohlman to curate an exhibit before his retirement in December. Pohlman has been with the museum since 1986, designing exhibitions and, every few years, teaching an exhibition-design class. Both men liked the idea of a show devoted to artworks using found materials.
Pohlman, who lives in Lincoln, said the Anatsui was his inspiration, but in selecting other artists, "I just looked for interesting work with an engaging backstory, art that is part of the social experience," he said.
"This is a show where older cultures are coming together in modern work," Pohlman continued. "I hope people will come for the pure enjoyment, seeing what creative people can do with the most ordinary things."