Because We Can

After walking through the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis last week an interesting idea popped up in our conversation. The exhibit on display was set up in a fairly time structured manner in that pieces were placed in proximity to each other based on the dates they were created. As we walked through it was interesting to see how time shaped art. Each decade had significant shifts in culture based on the types of things that were changing and developing in the time period. One example in particular stands out in my mind; quite a ways into the exhibit there was a small room that consisted of different electronic lighting fixtures that artists had made into sculptures or performance pieces. There was a box full of lights and mirrors that created the optical illusion that the box was infinite. It seemed as if there were no walls and that the lights went on as far as the eye could see. My initial reaction was, wow this is cool! But is it really reflective of anything culturally? What purpose does it really serve other than being a mind trick? Does it really belong in an art museum or is it better served in a science museum within an optics exhibit?

Later this box came up in our discussion and Sarah said something that really struck me. She said something along the lines of, do we use certain materials just because we can? This exhibit was portraying the more recent years of art and specifically revolved around the time when lights were becoming more than just utilitarian. For example, on display in this room were different colored bulbs, neon lights, and a slide show of a liquid moving on a slide lit up with different light filters behind it. So were these artists more or less playing with new materials? Was the purpose of creating these pieces simply that these were new materials to work with? Why did they make what they made?

Because they could.