Animal with Net
Artist: Shari Mendelson (American, born 1961)
Date: 2016
Dimensions:
25 × 18 × 18 in. (63.5 × 45.7 × 45.7 cm)
Medium: Repurposed plastic, hot glue, resin, acrylic polymer, mica paint
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Gift of Florence Scott Libbey, by exchange
Object number: 2020.1
Label Text:Shari Mendelson looks to art history for inspiration for her work—especially ancient Greek, Roman, and Islamic glass and ceramic objects. During her 2017 Glass Artist Pavilion Project (GAPP) residency at the Toledo Museum of Art, Mendelson created a series of hot-worked glass objects that directly reference ancient Roman and Islamic glass forms in the Museum’s collection.
After her residency, she continued the theme with a series of vessels based on ancient forms, but this time using re-purposed plastic as her medium. The plastic objects are true to the form, color, and opacity of ancient glass, but upon close examination, the plastic reveals itself with imprinted sell-by dates or recognizable shapes, such as the rings that hold together soda cans. In Animal with Net, we find a connection to our contemporary culture that is constantly in dialogue with the past. In this time of great cultural tumult and climate change crisis, Mendelson looks back to the beginning of a civilization, a foundation upon which our culture was built, and asks how we have arrived at our current place.
After her residency, she continued the theme with a series of vessels based on ancient forms, but this time using re-purposed plastic as her medium. The plastic objects are true to the form, color, and opacity of ancient glass, but upon close examination, the plastic reveals itself with imprinted sell-by dates or recognizable shapes, such as the rings that hold together soda cans. In Animal with Net, we find a connection to our contemporary culture that is constantly in dialogue with the past. In this time of great cultural tumult and climate change crisis, Mendelson looks back to the beginning of a civilization, a foundation upon which our culture was built, and asks how we have arrived at our current place.
DescriptionPear shaped vessel with elongated neck; scalloped ribbing decorates the body of the vessel; the vessel sits atop a four-legged horse-like animal; vessel is over-sized compared to the size of the animal.
Not on view