Deconstructing home
If someone were to create a portrait of you using only items in your home, what would it look like?
Elmhurst Art Museum artist-in-residence Alberto Aguilar and six other artists set out to answer that question as part of the “Open House: Art About Home” exhibit which runs Jan. 19-April 20.
Aguilar visited homes in the area and created sculptures from objects he found. But the process is quite complex.
He asks homeowners questions about items and maybe pulls aside a few which catch his eye while touring a subject’s home. Then he circles back and begins his process.
“He was almost drawn to what I would consider ordinary things, not necessarily what I found myself wanting to show him,” said Joann Callahan of Elmhurst, who participated in the project. “But when he puts the objects together, it’s defi- nitely a sculpture; it takes a while to figure out what the individual items are.”
For Callahan’s portrait, he juxtaposed an antique desk that belonged to her grandparents with her daughter’s pink gymnastics mat.
Aguilar, a Lombard native, has long been intrigued by the idea of integrating home life and his art practice. He not only wants people to experience art, but to embrace the idea of play and how it can exist in daily life. “I play with these domestic objects and in a sense through the making of them, I invite others to play with them as well.”
And he wants the owners to be part of the exchange; often having them dismantle and recreate his sculptures and explain what the piece means to them. “For them, the experience is different than for me because it’s their stuff,” he says. “My hope is that I either make some coincidental connections or give greater meaning to their lives.”
Sometimes those connections come in revealing ways. Walter Piper of Darien, a former classmate of Aguilar’s at the School of the Art Institute, found himself more aware of his possessions after the process.
“He’s really making a portrait of someone through their stuff,” he said. “When you see that, you realize what your stuff says about you. Why does he think this is important to me? What does it say about me? He’s not passively grabbing items. He’s trying to engage people on the same level he is and by making these choices, he’s making you look at your choices.”
Staci Boris, the recentlytapped chief curator of the museum, was intrigued with the idea of home since the museum is housed in Mies van der Rohe’s historic McCormick House.
“I really wanted a project that engaged the community and visitors through home and art. This project asks people to define what makes a home, what a home means and how different cultures define home,” she said.
Altogether, seven artists’ work will be displayed representing variations on the theme of home. Artist Don Baum makes a different type of domestic monument by creating miniature sculptures of A-frame houses using items typically found in homes such as linoleum tiles and paint-bynumber canvases.
Alyssa Miserendino’s photo series looks at abandoned Chicago area homes. And other artists delve into homes from other cities around the world and around the country.
“I think there are a lot of complex feelings that people have about home,” said Boris. “I hope (this exhibit) will prompt them to think about home and what it means.”
Laura Amman is a local free-lance writer.