Interpreting the Roger Brown Collection

By Ray Yang

As a finished product of their investigations of the provenance, historical context, and current social meaning of specific objects within the Roger Brown study collection, students enrolled in SAIC’s “Interpre-tation: Exploring Meaning” course are currently in the process of curating an exhibition. This exhibition, entitled Troubling Taxonomies: Reinterpreting the Roger Brown Study Collection, housed in the first floor of the former home and studio of Brown, a prominent Chicago imagist and deceased SAIC alum, is scheduled to open on December 6 at the 1926 Exhibition Studies Space Gallery.

This exhibition follows the Sublimated Conflicts exhibition that was the end result of the Fall 2001 “Interpretation” class, taught by Drea Howenstein. Last year the students chose objects from the Roger Brown Study Collection, which they would then research, reinterpret, and install in a creative new mannerto explore the objects’ origins, meaning, and differing manners of interpretation.

The study collection, located on the second floor of Roger Brown’s home and studio, is a dizzying environment of objects that the artistcollected throughout his life. Objects within the collection are arranged as Brown left them when he donated the building to the school. The fascinating contrasts between art and artifacts from different time periods, places, and contexts has resulted in curious juxtapositions, now submerged within the modernist aesthetic of Brown’s collection.

Students chose a variety of art objects, from non-Western and popular cultures alike, and researched the history and background of the pieces. For some, discovering the origin and provenance of the object was fairly straightforward and most of the work lay in uncovering meaning and imagining the interpretation of the object, as was the case for a kinetic sculpture by Karl Wirsum. However, for others, the research process was long and arduous, and ultimately without any concrete answers. No clear records exist for some pieces within the collection and attempts to find original artists, owners, or in one case what the actual object was, proved to be nearly impossible. But the students pressed on in their work and even a lack of answers became a piece of the story as the class began to recontextualize and reinterpret their objects.

Sara Lasser, now a second year MA Art Education (MAAE) graduate student, researched a wooden Mexican mask whose maker she was never able to identify.

The objects were installed at the 1926 Exhibition Studies Space, located in the first floor of Brown’s former home, and in the space that was once his studio. The gallery space seeks to provide students with a chance to gain experience in all facets of exhibition, and in this case, it also served as the perfect backdrop for the show, being situated directly below the Study Collection. Sublimated Conflicts was a great success, both as a learning experience for the students and as a showcase for the study collection.

This year, the “Interpretation” class is running again, but with a new slant. Once again, students will have access to the Study Collection and various artists, professors, professionals, and resources. However, this time the exhibition, Troubling Taxonomies, will delve further into classifications of the objects, cultural production, and the ability of the artist to facilitate social understanding. The students have extensively researched the navigation of the artifacts from their original intended use, purpose, or intention to where they are now and how they ended up in their current resting place.

Kat Parke, a first-year MAAE student said, “I think the research makes you reassess historical biases and interpretations. I for one am almost borderline obsessed with my object, a ‘Foto-Escultura,’ because I keep thinking about the places it has been — how it’s this ghostly type of object that was sort of orphaned and adopted and what does that mean. It sort of begins to take on life-like qualities for me.”

In some instances, these investigations have tended to dispel current beliefs about the artist or the works of art in general, making great strides in uncovering the “truth” about the pieces in the collection. Krista Robinson Hill, another first-year MAAE student, said, “This experience definitely makes me look at museum installations in a new way. Every artwork has such an amazing story to tell. Many of us are dealing with difficult subjects, and the research and responsibility involved in presenting ideas to the public is incredible.”

The graduate student curators/educators of Troubling Taxonomies encourage middle school and high school teachers and after-school program instructors to schedule a visit for their students to 1926 Exhibition Studies Space during the exhibition to explore issues regarding collecting and interpreting objects. The graduate students participating in this exhibition have developed a free teacher resource for 8th to 12th-grade students to be used as pre/post-visit materials for this exhibition or as an independent resource in the classroom.

Troubling Taxonomies will have its opening at the 1926 Exhibition Studies Space on Dec. 6, 2002, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The show will run through Dec. 16, 2002. The gallery is located at 1926 N. Halsted St, a half block south of Armitage. For more information about the teacher resource materials or to schedule a visit for students, please contact Steven Ciampaglia at (773) 878-0393.

Images courtesy of the Roger Brown Study Collection