Translations

This past Wednesday, January 19, we all drove over to the Goodwill on University Parkway, which has two parts. One is a more conventional store, and the other is a Goodwill Outlet. I'd expect that if you're anything like me, you're thinking, "How much more 'outlet' can Goodwill get?!?" But what makes this place so amazing -- all 47,000 square-feet of it (according to the Winston Salem Journal, http://www.goodwillnwnc.org/news.cfm?aid=93) -- is that you can buy by the pound! Oh, and they're applying for LEED certification as a "green" building!

I was in search of "mass quantities" of something that might act as a unifying visual element. With so many artists cooking this aesthetic and conceptual soup, I thought we needed an element that could be common to each artist's contribution.

Well, it just so happened that James, a manager at this location, saw me eying a large palette of industrial mop heads. I think the man must've been channeling P.T. Barnum that day, 'cause I bought the lot for $ 50.

Ah, but James was not done with me yet: he saw the acquisitive gleam in my eye, so he walked into the back of the place and showed me close to 30 five-foot long rolls of fabric. Then he turns to me and says, "$ 50 for the lot." Sensing my hesitation, he followed up with, "But it's a one-time, right now deal. You leave, and that's not the price."

The part of me that's sold encyclopedias and fire extinguishers door-to-door one summer was powerfully impressed. And so I caved, parting with another $ 50.

Looking at the stockpile now, I am pleased. We have things that unify, yes, but also offer the potential to manipulate. We can all, quite literally, distort, bend, fold, mutilate and eviscerate these elements, and, in doing so, even more clearly demonstrate our individual aesthetic and conceptual positions. The manner of our dealings with these mop heads and rolls of fabric will, via their very similarity, highlight our individuality via our translations of them. Indeed, "Translations" is both the name and the theme we've given the exhibit.
'Til next time...