Transitional Objects
June 22 - September 7, 2019
Featured Artists: Kyle Bauer, Calder Brannock, Dexter Ciprian, Emily Culver, Liz Ensz, Kyle Hittmeier, Trish Tillman, and Holly Trout
Transitional Objects highlights artists who explore human relationships to inanimate material – commodities, tools, personal belongings, items of clothing, and all of the other nonliving substances that populate our daily lives. Working in sculpture, installation, and video, these artists experiment with unconventional materials, take inspiration from or create functional objects, and create sculptures that elucidate both the allure and the trouble of material forms.
In the field of psychology, the phrase ‘transitional objects’ refers to objects adopted by children as a means of soothing their own anxiety, a role played by blankets and stuffed animals but also dolls, toy trucks, and items of clothing. The transitional object is associated with immaturity, with a need for constant reassurance, and an inability to distinguish between living creatures and inanimate forms. But in its role as a soother of anxiety, as a tool to navigate relations with the outside world, and as an object imbued with significance beyond its own basic functionality, the transitional object foreshadows many of the roles assigned to objects by humans throughout their lives. Focusing on the alluring, disturbing, obsessive, disruptive, and excessive, Transitional Objects encourages viewers to reconsider the social, cultural, and economic significance we ascribe to objects.