The Hirshhorn’s newest exhibit, Out of the Ordinary, explores the artistic potential in everyday objects and successfully sends its visitors into a transfigured state of fantasy while doing nothing short of regular.
The start of the exhibit describes the compiled art as “somewhere in between realism and fantasy”—an accurate description of the exhibit as a whole. The style is said to be derived from Marcel Duchamp, best known for his “Readymade” art pieces, and Jasper John, known for his paintings and sculpture exploring the nature of patriotism. The two artists were attempting to play with the items of everyday life: the American flag for Duchamp and bicycles for John. Not aiming to be detailed or realistic, they wanted to project the power of the imagination onto tangible objects.
The exhibit is laid out among four large rooms with large white walls and plentiful negative space.
The largest room in the exhibit contains both 2-D and 3-D objects, some more ambitious than others. There was a painted, realistic mail cabinet opposite an abandoned storefront. Robert Gober’s “Untitled” giant stick of butter was appealing to the eye, albeit somewhat puzzling. It was the kind of bizarre and rudimentary piece that usually makes people roll their eyes and write off contemporary art, but there was just something so intriguing about it. Despite it looking like the simplest thing on display, I took the most time with it.
Perhaps my favorite room of the display was in a darkened room near the end of the exhibit. Compared to everything else on display, Nikki S. Lee’s set of “projects” were especially provocative. In the first photograph, “The Hispanic Project” Lee, a Korean, stands beside a Hispanic woman. Lee appears to have darkened her skin and worn clothes much like the other woman’s, all the while making smug gestures towards the camera and standing like a stereotypical 90s urban Hispanic. The same wall continued with photos of Lee in “The Ohio Project,” where she stood inside a trailer home, and the hip hop project, where she stood behind African Americans, with sunglasses and even tanner skin.
In the last room, all the items on display are fairly naturalistic, a well thought out exit for the complex exhibit. One animated ‘film’ was incredibly true to life, and a painting beside it also had an air of photographic realism.
Just before exiting, I found myself in front of a giant fungus garden I initially thought to be a real plant. One man laughed and assured me it wasn’t.
Some of the art displayed took some time to get used to, but I appreciated being challenged even in a gallery as small as that housing Out of the Ordinary. A seemingly random arrangement of artistic pieces displaying different takes of common goods, the exhibit had a cohesive design that takes visitors through a progression of emotions that range from confusion to intrigue. What makes the trip worthwhile is finding the space in between.
