I have to start this off with an embarrassing story. When I went into the Des Moines Art Center’s downtown location, I was carrying a coffee. A Starbucks coffee. I am not typically one for chain anything. I can’t remember the last time I went to Wal-Mart … I buy local whenever possible. But when you’re in a pinch, traveling … it’s tough to say no, particularly where much-needed caffeine is concerned. As I walked inside the front door, I swilled the last sip, coating my teeth with grounds (serves me right), and in one fluid motion, pitched the empty cup into a wastepaper basket next to the podium where the guard sits to welcome visitors.
“Oops. That’s a piece of art you put your cup in.”
1 art school education, rendered worthless by careless consumption of corporate coffee.
Still, I felt better once I got to know the show a bit better. Conrad Bakker’s artwork is all about mingling the real with the unreal, blurring the line between reality and fiction. Each of the sculptures and paintings on display in Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997–2007] in some way challenges our perceptions, usually as it relates to commerce in some way. Take for example “Untitled Project: Gift Card [Des Moines Art Center] ,” a set of small paintings the exact size and shape of gift cards sold at the museum store, carefully painted to resemble the real thing, and sold for the face value of the card it represented.
Nothing in the exhibition was what it seemed – the security cameras that on first glance seemed to be protecting the artworks were in fact sculptures painted to look like the real thing, positioned in the place cameras would typically be. Ditto for the thermostat on the wall, the television set to “Mute,” the Epson projector on the faux George Nelson bench, and yes, even the wastebasket.
The works were roughly executed – no one would be fooled after a close look – but they passed a cursory glance, and when the works are photographed for placement on online shopping sites like eBay and Craigslist, they definitely require close examination. One series of paintings took as its subject matter items posted to Des Moines’ Craigslist, faithfully reproduced in small 4×6 paintings, and which Bakker then re-posted to the barter site as artworks for trade, listing the paintings under the categories depicted in the paintings. Very meta, very clever, and very worth seeing. This was one of the best shows I’ve seen at a museum for awhile, and hey – the price is right. Go see it before March 28th, 2008.
If you can’t make it to the show, check out Bakker’s web site – lots of eye candy to see and explore.
