Chido Johnson’s “Let’s Talk About Love Baby” at Columbus
College of Art and Design is an exhibit on love and its many forms. The idea
stated is that each artist conceals within visually uniform titles of romance
novels, their interpretation of “love”. The books are to be presented on some
form of shelving system with seating for viewers to relax and peruse the books.
Each book has a call number ala the Dewey Decimal System. Each venue has its
own “love librarian” to assign the type of shelving and sitting formations. For
this show, “love librarians” Danielle Julian Norton and Erin McKenna located the
books on two long shelves with what looked like church pews with pink lame’
covered cushions to sit and read on. The show has had several venues including
but not limited to; Indiana Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary
Art of Detroit, National Gallery of Zimbabwe.
I buy into the notion
of the church pews because we all long for and worship at the altar of love,
but the cheesy pink lame cushions, along with the poor construction of many of
the books, distracted me from taking the show too seriously. Also, I may be
nit-picking but there are no, “visually uniform titles”, thus deleting the
notion that each bookmakers intentions were hidden, you absolutely could tell
the intentions for many of the books before opening them. The only thing
uniform on the book covers were the call numbers. That being said there were
some interesting books in the exhibit.
L’Amour, the Book of
Love by Marie Bourger contains
famous quotes on love ranging from
humorous; “Love cures all things except poverty and tooth aches” by Mae
West, to the idealistic; “I hope you feel that real love and truth are stronger
in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world” by Charles Dickens. The
mixed media techniques and construction of pockets within pages led to many
interesting discoveries and made for an enjoyable interaction with the book.
Rats by Robert Sullivan contained ads for used cars culled from phone books, a commentary on feigned love.
Frankenstein by anonymous, is craft paper covered, sealed with packing tape then emblazoned with the title and an image of Casper David Friedrich’s The Wanderer in the Mists ,leaves little doubt of the artist’s negative feelings on love.
Gidion Bible, an interesting addition negating the notion of romantic love and focusing on the Christian idea of love.
I found the most compelling book had no title or author. Swatches of a linen textiles cut to the same proportion, with edges frayed to uniform length were painstakingly stitched together. The care and love that was put into the construction of this book that far out-weighed the unsophisticated binding of most of the books present, may be the greatest testament to love present at this exhibit.
Rats by Robert Sullivan contained ads for used cars culled from phone books, a commentary on feigned love.
Frankenstein by anonymous, is craft paper covered, sealed with packing tape then emblazoned with the title and an image of Casper David Friedrich’s The Wanderer in the Mists ,leaves little doubt of the artist’s negative feelings on love.
Gidion Bible, an interesting addition negating the notion of romantic love and focusing on the Christian idea of love.
I found the most compelling book had no title or author. Swatches of a linen textiles cut to the same proportion, with edges frayed to uniform length were painstakingly stitched together. The care and love that was put into the construction of this book that far out-weighed the unsophisticated binding of most of the books present, may be the greatest testament to love present at this exhibit.
On view October 11 through November 9, 2013
Byers Gallery, CCAD Design Studios on Broad
390 E Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio
Gallery hours: T/W/F 1-5pm, Th 2-7pm
For more information go to letstalkaboutlovebaby.com
Connaught
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