Once and again, an exploration of Simulacrum, National Glasmuseum Leerdam, Holland

The exhibition ‘Once and again, an exploration of Simulacrum’ is an outcome of a workshop by Beth Lipman hosted by The Gerrit Rietveld Academie and The National Glasmuseum Leerdam, Holland.

‘As a result of the workshop Mia Lerssi have created a new work ‘Simulacrum : murcalumiS’ implementing objects from the Collection of National Glasmuseum Leerdam, Holland. This appropriation piece challenges the concept of the original versus the copy. At the same time our collective making, gathering and consumption of materials and products, and the stories the artifacts mirror about mankind, are at stake. Mia has focus on material culture, material identity, and material sensuality.

The borrowed glass objects from the Collection has been carefully picked and placed in one of the museums glass cabinets, amongst own made items, bought and found artifacts and other peoples design and art work taken from her home. Several famous designers and artist creations are on display, from a time span of the last 100 years. Authorship has been disregarded, or one could say challenged.

The group of items are arranged on 3 shelves in a glass cabinet where the bottom shelf is lid from below and the top shelf from above. This representation refers to the display of the National Glasmuseum Leerdam’s collection and its visual massive abundance. In the collection of the museum, glass objects are put side by side with what sometimes seems like full awareness and sometimes randomness, where the production year seems to be the ruler and the cabinets their container. Here time and history is a standard parameter.

This is also true in the urge to categorize what is an original and what is a copy. In order to determine which is the original we use time. The copy seems always to come afterwards, whether its material, size, shapes, tactility, or colors that is in play. In this piece Mia Lerssi blur the reference point of time. Colors, shapes, and materials are mixed, and items are loosing their starting point, getting new relationships and meanings with each other through the placement in the cabinet.

The glass cabinet is an abundance of visual allurement becoming a cabinet of curiosum.’

‘Simulacrum : murcalumiS’; borrowed pieces from the National Glasmuseum’s Collection, glass ware, plastic products, a st. jacobs shell, rosen quarts pendant amongst many other things.

200 x 40 x 65 cm.

2013.

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Simulacrum : murcalumiS

2013

Photographer: Tim Johannis

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https://www.nationaalglasmuseum.nl