What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1436910
DECEMBER 12-18, 2021 WHAT'S UP! 9 Rather than re-creating Smithson's library in printed paper, artist Conrad Bakker has done it in sculptures. (Courtesy Image/Conrad Bakker) Even the "box" containing the "books" is actually a sculpture. (Courtesy Image/Conrad Bakker) The detail in Bakker's installation includes Christmas lights and even a stepstool. (Courtesy Image/Conrad Bakker) Visitors look at the art installations at the former Famous Hardware building. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe) Books in the installation are close enough to read their titles. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe) degree to the studio arts and rarely looked back. So there weren't really any vocational side trips, but I did end up having a number of different temporary jobs that provided me with strange art skills including grinding lawnmower decks in an aluminum foundry, drawing and repairing signs for a neon-sign company, and painting CD/album covers for early jazz and country-western music." "Untitled Project: Smithson's Books" is an iteration of "Untitled Project: Robert Smithson Library & Book Club," Bakker explains. "This project officially started in 2014 as part of an exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, but then it took me five more years to complete the entire list of books. "And now the storefront windows of the Famous Hardware building in Springdale have given me the opportunity to reimagine this particular collection of titles as a used book store!" In his project proposal, Bakker described "books arranged on a series of shelves, displayed on tables, and in stacks on the floor for optimal viewing from the sidewalk. The overall installation will be constructed to look something like a used bookstore that is in transition. "In addition to the books (sculptures), there will be carved and painted sculptures that may include a folding table (or two) for the display of objects and books, a short step ladder or stepping stool, a vintage box (or two) of holiday decorations, and an ambiguous sign/banner in the window advertising a 'sale' or 'coming soon,'" he proposed. "Similar to the titles in Smithson's library and the history of the Famous Hardware building, the additional sculptures will incorporate a pre-1973 aesthetic, allowing the entire display of objects in these front windows to function like a strange time capsule — a simulation of the past that might be useful for understanding the present and mapping the future." "I construct my projects to be accessible on many different levels, perhaps keeping in mind that not everyone who experiences this installation will know about Robert Smithson or understand why his personal library is important," Bakker muses. "Still, I would like to think that many/most of the viewers experiencing this carved and painted used book store as a visual, theatrical display will be able to access some of the more interesting questions at play." Next door, in the building's other windows, multi-modal public artist Jay Walker's "Receiving" is described as "a bright, translucent, multilayered mural [with] beams of brightly patterned color radiating from a point high on the windows, streaking toward a pair of waiting outstretched hands." "My hope is that Conrad Bakker's and Jay Walker's Famous Hardware installations create a little vibrant oasis in downtown Springdale to warm up eyes and imaginations during the cold winter months," says Dayton Castleman, curator for the Famous Hardware building and director of visual thinking at Verdant Studio. "I'm excited to see these two artists bring a new perspective and spin to Famous Hardware," says Olivia Tyson of the Tyson Family Foundation. "It's always been our goal to inspire curiosity and bring a playfulness to Emma Avenue — Conrad's vintage bookstore and Jay's play with color and light do just that, and I'm thrilled they are closing out a year of incredible artists visiting Springdale."