Impurities

Artist Josiah McElheny (American, born 1966)

Date1994-2012

DimensionsRunning Length: 188 9/16 in. (478.9 cm)
Case 1: 31 5/16 × 43 5/16 × 5 in. (79.5 × 110 × 12.7 cm)
Cases 2-5: 22 5/16 × 32 5/16 × 8 3/8 in. (56.7 × 82.1 × 21.3 cm)
Dimensions variable

MediumHand-blown glass, wood, low-iron sheet glass, brass mounting hardware, drawings and hand lettered text

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

2020.23A-U

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02A, Wolfe

DescriptionComprised of five wall mounted cases. Case one (far left) includes a map of the ancient world and a hand lettered key that identifies each piece of "ancient" glass by date. The four remaining cases each contain a set of four vessels, each in a distinct color. The key indicates places each set of glass can be found by color on the map, (left-right, cases 2-5: pale green, Damascus; amber, Cologne; blue, Rome and surrounding areas; blue-green objects, Israel.

Label TextJosiah McElheny’s Impurities plays with the tensions between fact and fiction to explore how objects can embody—and reinterpret—history. Impurities pairs McElheny’s own expertly blown glass vessels that replicate ancient Roman forms with hand-written labels to create an installation that imitates historic museum displays. His choice of colors for the glass vessels also references typical ancient Roman functional vessels: amber, blue and green. Within the sterile, wall-mounted vitrines however, his distorted narrative is revealed: while the glass is presented as ancient Roman, the fabrication is clearly contemporary. The perfection in form and quality of the glass itself, seemingly void of any imperfections, undermines the possibility of ancient manufacture. For much of the history of glass, color was dependent on the geographic source of sand, a key ingredient in glass. A label above each set of vessels names the purported impurity and the color it yields. By insinuating that these aesthetically perfect forms are composed of impure material, McElheny encourages our reflection on the notion of purity today and long ago. McElheny’s pseudo-archeological installation, complete with hand-written narrative, map, key, and object ID numbers, reinforces the contrived histories of objects found in museums.Published Referencesdo Ceu Baptista, Maria, Josiah McElheny, Galicia, Xunta de Galicia / Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, 2002, pp. 177-181 (repr.), 207.

Neri, Louise and Josiah McElheny (Eds.), A Prism, New York, Skira Rizzoli, 2009, pp. 247-251 (repr.).

Josiah McElheny: Towards a Light Club, Berlin, Hatje Cantz / Wexner Center for the Arts, 2013, pp. 46-51 (repr.).

Exhibition HistorySantiago de Compostela, Spain, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Josiah McElheny, 2002.

Columbus, OH, Wexner Center for the Arts, Josiah McElheny: Towards a Light Club, January 27–April 7, 2013.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Dave Hickey and Jennifer R. Gross, "Josiah McElheny," published in conjunction with the exhibition, "Josiah McElheny," January 22-April 25, 1999, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.