Makerspaces: Aotearoa New Zealand: “Plastic Age” at Mid-Manhattan Library: An Interview with Barbara Madsen

Monday 4 May 2015

“Plastic Age” at Mid-Manhattan Library: An Interview with Barbara Madsen

Today, Rebecca Rubenstein interviews the artist behind of a new show at NYPL’s Mid-Manhattan Library, where artist and librarian Arezoo Moseni regularly curates shows of community artists. Don’t miss Rebecca’s other posts on library-as-incubator happenings in the NYC area! ~Erinn

by Rebecca Rubenstein

Barbara Madsen’s artwork is intriguing from the start. I was drawn to the vibrant colors immediately as I entered Mid-Manhattan Library. And the details furthered the adventure—every surface within her sculptural works is carefully considered and rendered to the fullest. I recently spoke with the artist about her work and its relationship to library environment.

LAIP: Tell me a little bit about what inspires your artwork.

Barbara Madsen (BM): My collection of objects is at the core of my practice in photography, installation and print. I select the spectacular and mundane object: the inside of a toy, the handle of a tool, a tube, a dented ball, the guts of a vacuum, a part from a hair dryer. Re-imagining these objects renders the invisible visible. In addition, one of my favorite books is Edwin Abbott’s 1884 geometric satire Flatland, where the minimalist Two-dimensional protagonist, A. Square, was tried and convicted as a heretic simply because he claimed to have visited the third dimension.

Barbara Madsen_Plastic Age_Further Removed_Archival Inkjet photograph_38x50 inches

LAIP: How did you decide on the placement of your pieces in the library? The window spaces seem ideal for the large pieces—for me, the scale captures my attention but the small details are equally as intriguing.

BM: I have worked with billboards in the past and when Arezoo asked me to exhibit at the library, I knew that I wanted to fill the Corner Room windows with banners. The selection of the images comes from an ongoing series, “Portraits,” where I photograph the singular object as an iconographic monument. The scale ranges from large to small and the attention to detail is intended to be a reward for looking. I spent a good deal of time observing how people used the Corner Room, and it was evident that light is central to a relaxed ambiance in the room. I researched various translucent fabrics that could be printed on and still allow the city to appear and recede throughout different times of the day.

I have worked with billboards in the past and when Arezoo asked me to exhibit at the library, I knew that I wanted to fill the Corner Room windows with banners.

LAIP: Tell me more about your book project on display in the Corner Room.

BM: The “Unspecific Object,” a book of photogravures and poems was a crowd-sourced project: I placed an open call for objects on social media networks encouraging people to submit images of objects they consume, past and present. These could be banal, meaningful or significant objects, stored, ignored, or hoarded. The winners were juried by Jared Ash, Assistant Museum Librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Arezoo Moseni, Senior Art Librarian at the New York Public Library. The physical objects were sent through snail mail to me and I built the architectural spaces for the objects, photographed them and generated photogravures for the book. The Venezuelan poet, Ely Rosa Zamora created her interpretation of the images in verse. The book was developed at a residency at the Scuola di Grafica in Venice, Italy.

The “Unspecific Object,” a book of photogravures and poems was a crowd-sourced project: I placed an open call for objects on social media networks encouraging people to submit images of objects they consume, past and present.

This mask was made in a workshop with activists who were attacked during gay pride in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. They taught a workshop in their native tradition of felt to help them come up with alter egos to protect them. Berikaoba is an ancient Georgian ritual with masks, a bit like Halloween.

LAIP: How did the Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection inspire you when you first saw it?

BM: Browsing through the Picture Collection (pre Google image search) is like sliding down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. I loved looking through the vast array of folders ranging from: industry, tools, fabrication, ice, and plastic. I am fascinated with technology and the byproducts of society’s hyper consumerism. I was surprised to find in the Picture Collection an advertisement from the 1950’s by Monsanto extolling the virtues of plastic.

LAIP: How has exhibiting your work in the library environment informed your art practice?

BM: Finding the advertisements for plastic as mentioned before led me to dive into the stacks and research the development of plastics. Working in a public space such as the library also presents certain guidelines for safety. The restrictions in Picture Collection made me re-examine framing and mounting the photographs. The Corner Room entrance allowed the sculptures to take my previous installation work in a new direction.

For more information visit the exhibitions in person or online:

Plastic Age: IN/OUT | Art in the Corner Room Exhibition Series (on view through Thursday, May 21)
Plastic Age: Video and Sculpture | Art in the Windows Exhibition Series (on view through Thursday, May 21)
Plastic Age: Further Removed | Photo Walls in Picture Collection Exhibition Series (on view through Monday, August 17)

Rebecca Rubenstein is an artist who earned her MFA from from Pratt Institute before enrolling as an MSLIS student at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University. She recently completed an internship with the Librarian for Fine Art at New York University’s Bobst Library. One of her projects there was to build a Lib Guide which includes online and print professional development resources for visual artists. She currently works in the eLibrary of an educational software company. Visit her website at http://ift.tt/1v3kbM1.