MARFA — It’s a shopping spectacular! It’s also an art show!
The artists of Marfa High School invite all to enjoy Storehorns, an art installation of their work that doubles as a shopping experience. The project is set for 6-8 p.m., April 26, at the Marfa Book Company, 300 S. Kelly.
Storehorns is a collaboration between the Chinati Foundation’s education team and MISD art teacher Adele Powers. “Each spring we work together on a project that involves all Ms. Powers’ art students,” said Michael Roch, Chinati’s education director. “The idea behind Storehorns is an exploration into everyday objects. These artworks are familiar and identifiable, yet they don’t serve their original function. A phone sculpture isn’t a phone, but it looks like a phone. Though it doesn’t work like a phone, its representation can still hold the essence of the original. Or it can be something else.”
Students initiated the project with a trip to Chinati, where they considered Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg’s large-scale horseshoe sculpture, “Monument to the Last Horse.” They likewise visited the magical studio of local artist Camp Bosworth, whose oversized objects gave students many ideas for their own work. Back at school, they launched into work, mixing plaster, cutting felt and fabric, slathering paint onto surfaces, hot gluing, sewing and mark-making in a gentle mayhem that went on for a month.
What emerged were sculptures of mundane objects that were anything but mundane. Often, the scale of these objects became warped. Often, they were funny. Aundrea Garcia took her peanut allergy to task by creating a giant felt jar of Jif. Billie Joe Armstrong’s guitar was transformed into a pillow by Piper Donaldson. Out of plaster came boxing gloves and a bacon-chicken-cheese-and-ranch Subway sandwich. A gargantuan pepperoni pizza took shape from felt and plaster. Alex Luna’s cake, made from chicken wire and plaster, was decorated with spackle he piped on and cherries formed from air-dried clay. “I really enjoyed seeing everyone else’s creation being made, created out of nothing, and having their own separate things to be proud of,” he said.
Plus, it was just fun.
“This project was a joy,” said Chinati lead educator Molly Bondy. “Every year I’m blown away by our students’ innovation, risk taking and artistic voice. Their personalities shined through, from wry humor to the love between friends.”
“There was not a day where the students didn’t make me laugh,” added Angela Pastor, the education team’s intern who assisted in the classroom. “It was fun to guide students, but it was even more rewarding to see them get things done on their own and with the help of each other.”
The work can be yours. Each of the sculptures is for sale at the one-night-only event, hosted at the Marfa Book Company. Bookstores, after all, provide books for sale, but also offer people a place to think and wonder and share ideas, according to Marfa Book Company’s owner, Tim Johnson. “Storehorns inspires the same questions and pleasures for me,” he said. “Whose art is this? Does it belong to the artist who made it? Or the person who buys it? Or does it belong to the person who sees it and remembers it?”
Clearly, there’s lots to ponder in this art-show-meets-commercial-venture. Good thing there will be hotdogs — real hotdogs — available to everyone at the event, and which are free and are not for sale. Lemonade too!
All sales go directly to the students — cash preferred, Venmo available.