Installation Art

As part of the "ArtStop" show in Des Moines, where you are provided a map showing galleries, public art, sculpture parks, and other individual installation pieces to drive around and see in your own time frame and at your own pace, I saw the installation piece by Judy Bales at the Central Branch of the DSM Public Library. My sons and I actually saw the art about a week before the ArtStop took place - we were at our weekly trip to the library and we saw it in the breezeway on the south side of the building.

From the entryway to the library, it looked like a frosty ice sculpture that once grew out of an old refrigerator that was in an apartment I rented. The pink appliance was from the 50's and had a separate icebox inside of the frig. The unit was so out of date and inefficient that the icebox was always full of frost. From the day I moved in, I could only slide a single ice tray in between the mound of frost on the bottom and the roof of frost on the top. I defrosted it once, but it filled up again within a week, so I never did it again. Consequently, the frost grew so rampantly that the icebox began staying open so the frost could continue to grow out of it and into the frig. Eventually, it was so bad, it kept me from getting the frig door closed.

As soon as I spotted the white, crystalline-looking sculpture I had a flashback of that old frig. Before we went into the library, we walked close enough to see that it was constructed of white zip-ties. Cool! Books were on our minds so we went in, made our returns, found some new treasures, and went out the same door so we could look at the sculpture closer.

It was installed beginning at the ceiling and tumbled to the floor in a few different columns in front of a glass wall. There were some lightweight, projecting brackets that had been suction-cupped to the glass wall to give the frosty-zip-ties something to cling to and grow on, and give it some depth. We all marveled at the fact that it looked like an ice cliff when you were twenty feet away from it, but up close, it was just a bunch of cheap plastic zip-ties. I thought it was well-placed, but rather delicate and wondered just how many kids who had come to the library had stopped and poked and prodded at it. Both of my sons reached for it and I told them not to touch it. I pointed out that even though there was not a sign saying "DON"T TOUCH", you shouldn't automatically assume that you can touch it.

My ten-year-old pointed out that there was no sign saying that it was art, either, and that maybe the "workmen" just had a bunch of extra zip-ties so they did this on their lunch hour. I couldn't argue with that!