The One with the Art Exhibit(s)

I had the day off yesterday so Chris was finally able to take me to the Dan Steinhilber exhibit at the Museum of Art on BYU campus that he's being dying to show me. I was very impressed. So much so that I'm going to blog about it.

As a brief introduction, here is what BYU has to say about Steinhilber: "During the last decade, Steinhilber's explorations have lead to fantastical installations of flickering fluorescent light bulbs, dangling dry-cleaner hangers, flying packing peanuts, inflated trash bags, and interconnected rings of PVC pipe. By utilizing a visual language familiar to most of us, he explores the beauty and the natural qualities of the mundane, in a way that compels us to become more aware. Like Marcel Duchamp or Andy Warhol before him, Steinhilber chooses familiar mass-produced objects for his medium."

In the front entryway of the museum there's this sculpture made of dry-cleaner hangers called Untitled. In fact, all of his works are called Untitled. I think the main reason Chris likes Steinhilber so much is because of his installations made with Mountain Dew.
Chris told me that to get this artwork below from D.C. to Provo, Dan rolled up the trash bags, stuffed them in his backpack, and then stretched them over the canvas once he got to the museum. They're black and white trash bags ironed together so the plastic has melted in parts and then it's been stretched over an entire wall-sized canvas. It reminds me of a Jackson Pollock.It reminds me of my new favorite quote.
This is one of Chris' favorite pieces. It's a photograph of an exploding light bulb. He likes it so much he bought a t-shirt of it a few months ago. When I first saw him wearing it, I thought it looked liked a fractured spine.
In the words of Hermione Granger, "Is that really what I look like from behind?"My favorite installation is this packing peanuts one. In a corner of a room there are thousands of packing peanuts in a pile and every so often fans go off which send the peanuts flying into enchanting spirals.
It looks like moving water, nay, white water rapids, when photographed.Here's a short video of the peanuts in action. I recommend watching it with no sound.


Steinhilber's got a fascination with garbage bags. These black ones have been sealed together with an iron and then pumped with air so they're floating around taking up a bunch of space.
These are PVC pipes looped together, making an interesting formation at the end of a room. There's also a sink with running water...Why? I don't even know.This is my second favorite piece. It looks like chunks of orange glass from afar.
But really, it's packs of duck sauce from a Chinese restaurant attached to a wooden board.This one is a bunch of colorful balloons intertwined together. The room smelled like latex. But it's oh so colorful and happy.In a dark room there's a wall full of flickering lightbulbs. Kinda scary. Kinda gives me nightmares after standing in there staring at them for so long. But still kinda cool, and another of Chris' favorites.
The exhibit will be at the MOA until June 6th and I highly recommend paying a visit.

There's also an exhibit of photographs and actual models of the sets made by the I SPY guy - Walter Wick.Who doesn't love looking at I SPY books?! I'm convinced if you give them to your kids when they're young, they will grow up to be very observant individuals.
The Walter Wick exhibit is on display until August 1st. I'd like to go back when there's not a school bus full of hyperactive children.