Animal with Net

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Animal with Net

Artist Shari Mendelson American, born 1961

Date2016

Dimensions25 × 18 × 18 in. (63.5 × 45.7 × 45.7 cm)

MediumRepurposed plastic, hot glue, resin, acrylic polymer, mica paint

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Florence Scott Libbey, by exchange

Object number

2020.1

Not on View

Exhibition HistoryNew York, NY, Heller Gallery, “An Alternative History: The Other Glass”, Curated by John Drury, beginning January 10, 2019.Label TextShari 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.