May 24, 2016

“Permanent Collection / Impermanent Museum”

(left) Chris Fraser, Atmosphere, 2015 | (right) Atmosphere footprint

Peer behind the curtain and peruse the collected ephemera that remains after an exhibition has been packed up and shipped out of the museum. “Permanent Collection / Impermanent Museum” explores the physical residue of the first 17 years of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition history.

Looking down, the footprints of past artworks remain visible on the gallery floor. From Jen Urso’s drawing series Ice Flow (commissioned for the exhibition “Drawing Outside the Lines,” 2007) to Chris Fraser’s recent Architecture + Art installation Atmosphere (“Chris Fraser: Looking Back,” 2015), a variety of pieces have left their marks in a variety of ways.

Atmosphere footprint – markings from where walls were anchored to gallery floor

Looking up, artworks also leave hanging hardware in the gallery rafters. Janet Echelman’s 25-foot wide sculptural net The Expanding Club (“Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting,” 2008) and the wooden supports for the 200-pound bronze bell in David Gurman’s Memorial for the New American Century (“Covert Operations: Investigating the Known Unknowns,” 2014) are just two examples.

Sanded museum pedestal reveals layers of paint from past exhibitions.

Combined, the built sediment from past exhibitions provides archaeological opportunity for viewers to rediscover and reconsider the museum’s creative history. The marks left on the building by artworks that have traveled through its doors echo the impressions those same works have made on SMoCA’s visitors.   “Permanent Collection / Impermanent Museum” highlights the subtle places where a careful investigator can find small remembrances of the artworks and exhibitions installed, de-installed and re-installed within the museum’s walls and ruminate on the remnants of the exhibition process.