Art museum displays interactive exhibit
CHICO >> There is a new exhibition to literally play with at the Museum of Northern California Art.
Deceased artist Alice Hutchins, who grew up in Chico along with her sister Claudia Steel, made 5060 interactive sculptures made out of steel. Thirteen of them are now on display at monca. The room in which they are located also display Steel's paintings on the walls, with the steel sculptures placed on blocks around the room. Museum goers can mess around with the magnets and other parts of the sculptures, which Hutchins herself did.
Hutchins' son Tom Hutchins, who lives in Pismo Beach, gifted monca with the sculptures.
Hutchins got the brainstorm to work with steel after visiting a department store in Paris in 1967; she found some supplies in New York City as well and began creating her sculptures, according to a Redding Museum and Art Center exhibition catalogue. She called the collection Play-Things. In February 1968 she showed the objects along with her earlier Paris works at the Something Else Gallery in New York City.
“If I didn't like it, or it fell apart, I could easily make another. I liked these fragile constructions. It was exciting to discover I could use magnets to hold things together,” Hutchins said in the catalogue.
Monca Executive Director Pat Macias is very jazzed about the exhibit.
“I think it's pretty exciting,” said Macias.
The show will be on display until Sunday, Jan. 21.
The next monca exhibition starts Jan. 26, for the Snow Goose Festival. It will be an avian art exhibit and will run until March 3. There will be a free reception from 5-8 p.m. Jan. 26 to begin the exhibit.
Monca is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at 900 The Esplanade, 530-487-7272, www.monca.org. Admission is $5 for adults. Members, children and students get free admission.