"Welcome now to Museum Mysteries. On exhibit at the Loveland Museum Gallery until November 1st is "Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family," altar works by Laurie Zuckerman. Laurie's installation altarpieces and sculpture honor her parents and other members of her family in a heartfelt and long-standing tradition of remembrance.
"Gail and I had research to do at the museum for our "Ranching Life" series, and when we walked into the museum, our attention was drawn to the right, into the gallery and the exhibit "Memento Mori." We were struck by the color of red and the numerous memorabilia that Laurie had collected to form altars: memorial shrines, forget-me-not tins, and memory jugs. We were walking along searching each of the memory jugs, and what should we see—a memory jug that spoke to us of ranching life. It was covered with various tokens of cowboys, Indians, cattle, wagons, horses, and more than we could name.
"We thought it would be fun for this month's "Museum Mystery" to be a memory jug. A memory jug is a hobby craft that is traced to many cultures. In America, it goes back to the Victorian era and to the Southern African-American traditions. A memory jug can be [made from] pottery, crockery, coffee pots, vases. They are covered with personal tokens: cloth, beads, buttons, figurines, shells, and jewelry— anything that might have also belonged to the deceased.
"We have picked a "Museum Mystery" for a visitor to discover at the exhibit "Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family." It is the memory jug titled, "Up in Smoke." We hope you have fun as you stroll through the gallery and your eyes come in contact with that particular memory jug, and how it seemed to pertain to our program: "Ranching Life: Home on the Range."
No comments:
Post a Comment