When entering into this exhibition, “Without you the world goes on†at the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday, January 26, 2019 artworks featuring Susan Collis, one might think they arrived on the wrong day because there appears to be no art at first sight seeing a rickety old stepladder accompanied by a drop cloth, both spattered with drips of paint.
However, viewers with an eye for detail will discover that the paint drips on the ladder are not paint but precious gems of opals, pearls, coral and turquoise and have been meticulously inlaid in the wood and also the paint drips on the drop cloth are beautifully hand-stitched silk embroidery.
Discovering the installation supplies are actually the works of art and as viewers further inspect, they will be see nails and screws are made from platinum and white gold; packing blankets are handwoven with mohair, cashmere and gold thread; and scraps of what appear to be ordinary wooden boards are instead exotic and rare white holly or rosewood.
This being Artist Collis’ first museum exhibition in the United States, viewers will realize the installation crew is not on lunch break and these seemingly ordinary objects have been made from or altered with precious materials, produces them a human emotion of excitement such as being let in on a secret. Collis’s works are about time, materials, labor and value. They are complete with conceptual ideas and full of rich, poetic, intrinsic contradictions.
Organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs / Senior Curator Alison Ferris, a full color, hardcover exhibition catalogue will accompany the exhibition, including an interview between the artist and Ferris, as well as an essay by curator, writer and art historian Glenn Adamson. The exhibit will run through May 12, 2019. For more information, Call 515.277.4405 or www.desoinesartcenter.org.