GALLERIES C8


galleries from C1 Remember 1925? That year’s


match was over Marcel Breuer’s then- brand-new tubular-steel Wassily Chair, inspired by the bicycle frame. Today, the iconic object sits on a MoMA pedestal as a triumph of both art and design. You can eyeball it like an art object or sit in it (or its knock- off ) to enjoy Breuer’s Bauhaus rigor. That 1925 contest ended in a draw. In today’s match, we pit two exhibi- tions against each other. One features art objects fashioned from industrial materials. The other asks that we view commercial products as art ob- jects. Let’s see how each side fares.


‘Objectified’ Playing for Team Art, we have Ana-


costia’s Honfleur Gallery, where four artists present objects and conceptu- al jewelry inspired by (and incorpo- rating) construction-site detritus and office-building HVAC systems. Team Design is represented by the Mexican Cultural Institute, where a large- scale, multi-floor exhibition of com- mercial design — lamps, chairs, den- tal-floss holders — offers objects that are meant to be used. “Objectified: The Domestication of


the Industrial” at Honfleur culls ob- jects related to commercial products — building materials, toasters — that are scaled down for personal or do- mestic settings. There’s apocalyptic humor to An-


drea Miller’s necklaces, one of which features a mini HVAC duct. Miller fabricates small versions of everyday items into a thinking person’s jew- elry. In a series of photographs pre- sented here, models pose, like intel- lectual Flavor Flavs, with small-scale commercial parts dangling from their necks. Miller’s objects, five in all, hang adjacent to the pictures. Miller calls the pieces “Peripheral Systems.” She’s interested in how these ubiquitous materials live at the periphery of our awareness. (You need only look to the gallery’s ceiling, with its exposed ductwork, to find Miller’s prototypes.) Part of her aim is to remind us how central these items are to our existence. But there’s also a sinking feeling


associated with wearing four inches of HVAC ducting around your neck. The thing suggests a gas mask or some future world where we may need personal breathing units to sur- vive.


Robert Longyear also makes in-


R


KLMNO Transforming the everyday object into unusual designs


FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010


BALA STUDIO COMMERCIAL:Andres Amaya’s “Chacmuelas” is a dental-floss holder.


holders. The massive show of contempo-


rary Mexican design dwarfs Hon- fleur’s modest offerings; more than 200 pieces by 31 collective workshops and individual designers are on view. Highlights include Ariel Rojo’s ce-


ANDREA MILLER INDUSTRIAL: A necklace from Andrea Miller’s “Peripheral Systems.”


dustrial jewelry. One brooch and three “neck pieces” — necklacelike, yet meant to drape around the neck without a clasp — are displayed alongside a few photographs and a series of panels harvested at con- struction sites. Longyear fashioned his jewelry out of discarded nails and metal fabric he found at neglected structures near his St. Louis home. These are diffi- cult, prickly objects, yet he treats them with a jeweler’s care. A brooch offers a voodoo doll-like pincushion of nails, undermining our definition of jewelry and elevating detritus to the realm of ornament. Other works at Honfleur are less


convincing. Jeanne Jo translated a love letter into a crocheting pattern


and created a massive scarflike scroll measuring 150 feet long. With its ref- erences to Penelope waiting for Odys- seus’s return, it’s an interesting art- work. Yet it belongs in another show. I can’t muster the same kindness for Colleen Heineman, who attempts a quasi-scientific analysis of house- hold clutter by producing small cop- per objects. Her aims and her objects don’t square.


‘Rethinking Tradition’


Artistic intent and final products jibe much better at the Mexican Cul- tural Institute, where the best work in “Rethinking Tradition: Contempo- rary Design From Mexico” seamlessly engages our mind, our senses and our need for reading lights and pencil


ramic lamps shaped like tubby black and white pigs; energy-saving fluo- rescents screw in to form their tails. The swine are traditional symbols of prudence and incorporate current earth-friendly technologies. Also ap- pealing, the oak plywood hanging lamps of Caterina Morettiand Hector Mendoza, both of the design collec- tive Peca. The designers arranged a series of curved wood slats into a bell-shape cage, though a few slats are not like the others. These feature bird silhouettes that inject these ob- jects with poetry. But my favorite item for both utili-


ty and art-historical chops is Andres Amaya’s 1999 “Chacmuelas” dental- floss holder. Its title is a pun on “Chac Mools,” Mesoamerican reclining male figures that first appeared be- tween 950 and 1521 at sites such as Chichen Itza. Amaya’s little flosser is a tubby pink fellow with floss emerg- ing from his belly. He’s useful, ergo- nomic and art-smart. Match notes: After a scoreless first half in which the two sides had an


equal number of chances, Team De- sign scored on a sharp-angle shot in the 76th minute. Considering that Honfleur’s offerings were more con- ceptual than utilitarian and that Mexican Cultural Institute’s best pieces were both utilitarian and con- ceptual, the shot breezed past Team Art’s goalkeeper. Design: 1, Art: 0 [Cue the vuvuzelas.] style@washpost.com


Dawson is a freelance writer. Objectified:


The Domestication of the Industrial


at Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Good Hope Rd. SE, Tuesday-Friday noon to 5 p.m., Saturday


11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 202-536-8994, to July 23. www.honfleurgallery.com.


Rethinking Tradition: Contemporary Design From Mexico


at the Mexican Cultural Institute, 2829 16th St. NW, Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 202-728-1628, to Oct. 16. portal.sre.gob.mx/imw.


Tell children to speak up if adult makes them uneasy


CAROLYN HAX


While I’m away, readers give the advice:


On handling a relative who gives your child the creeps:


Standing between any “private” moments between your child and the relative is only one level of protection. You need to give your child another level that’s possible whether you’re there or not — especially if the other parent is not on board and will see nothing wrong with having the relative and the child watching a movie in the living room by themselves.


Do not point to the relative in any specific way, just make it very clear that you support her right to not be alone with someone who is making her feel weird — in any way. Tell her if she feels uncomfortable being alone with someone, she needs to ask to go talk to (whoever is around), or join them, etc. Give her a variety of options to choose from in how she does that. “I want to call Mom and tell her about the book you got me.” “I want to go to the park” (or wherever other people are around). Tell her that it is okay to tell people


they are really creeping her out/disturbing her/annoying her and she wants them to stop. Now. I can’t stress it enough: You need to


make it okay for her to be creeped out by someone, and support her in taking steps not to be alone with them. Give HER the tools of how to do that without making it a big issue unless it needs to be.


Anonymous


I left your pronouns intact, but this is an important lesson to teach sons, too, not just daughters. Thanks.


On choosing to conceive a child while single:


Some 40-plus years ago, I had a baby without being married or partnered — and without, to my astonishment, the support of any of my “hippie”


Help granddaughter find love, friendship from afar


FAMILY ALMANAC Marguerite Kelly


My granddaughter, nearly 9, is aca- demically smart, emotionally immature and so tiny that she looks like she’s in the first grade, instead of the third — the result of surgery when she was little and then a feeding tube for several years. Now she doesn’t really enjoy food anymore. She really takes it to heart when her classmates — most of whom are poor, low-achieving minority children — call her “midget” or “shrimp,” and she re- acts by being critical of them and all children, even though I try to make her focus on their positive aspects. I hate to see my granddaughter be so negative in her formative years.


NICK GALIFIANAKIS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


countercultural friends. Since I was doing something bold, I expected them to hover round with offers of babysitting, home-cooked meals, etc. Didn’t happen. As it turned out, my daughter has reproached me her whole life for depriving her of a full-time father. I’ve concluded that one person


doesn’t have the moral right to decide whether another person will have two parents. Certainly things happen, folks change, we marry unwisely, people die, etc. But to make the choice without any input from the person most affected — an unseen, unknown child — seems to me now to have been supremely arrogant.


S.


On babies who prefer one parent to another:


Babies are beautiful, mysterious creatures that do not follow our preconceived wishes. I am the fortunate


father of three, grandfather of 14 and great-grandfather of six. They all love my wife and me unreservedly, but not both all the time or at the same time. There have been many times when one will completely ignore one of us and only want the other, and then vice-versa. This is the way of babies and even young ones. Tell people not to take it personally; their time will come over and over and over again. Enjoy your children, love them and they will love you in return.


New Jersey


Write to Tell Me About It, Style, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or tellme@ washpost.com.


ONLINE DISCUSSION Carolyn Hax’s weekly Web chat is at noon at www.


washingtonpost.com/discussions.


Although her mother has found after- school classes in ballet and religion for my granddaughter and a soccer team for her, too, the child has never had a best friend, and she rarely has a play date. I think she would do better in a pri- vate or a Catholic school, but her par- ents don’t want to pay the tuition, and my son tells me that this is unnecessary because she is doing so well academi- cally — as though school was the only learning experience that mattered! I think my granddaughter is also af- fected by her parents’ frequent argu- ments, which often concern her, and by the harsh way her mother, who’s His- panic, talks about my son. He lets her raise the children, however, either be- cause he’s indifferent or because he wants to keep the peace.


My granddaughter does spend the


night at my home twice a month, and we do have a good relationship, but I play only a minor role in her life and I don’t know how to help her.


You may see your granddaughter only


twice a month, but she is in your heart ev- ery day — and you are in hers. Tell this child, in every way you can, that you love her. The more lines of communication you open, the easier it will be for her to stay in touch with you and the tighter your rela- tionship will be.


If her parents also have a computer, you can reach out to her through Facebook and Skype, which are free downloads, as well as through e-mails. Of these three choices, Skype is the most personal because it will let you see and hear each other in real time. With this


extraordinary and deeply underused tech- nology, you can make a free video call to your granddaughter, and to almost any- one else anywhere in the world, if you are online at the same time and you both have webcams, either built into your laptops or hanging on your monitors. Think of the pleasure you’ll get (and she’ll get) when you read a bedtime story to her — or she reads one to you — or when you hear her say her prayers at night or catch the kiss she throws to you. If Skype seems too high-tech for you,


there’s the old-fashioned telephone. A quick call every few days will let her know how much you care. Or send postcards to your granddaughter or cartoons you’ve cut out of the newspaper, because school- children love to get mail. If you give her some stationery, she may even write back if you have put your address and a stamp on each envelope. Or give your grand- daughter a journal and ask her to write down the best thing that happened to her that day and also the worst. It may be more cathartic for her to share her many complaints with you than to a diary, but if you hear too many, you’ll be overwhelmed by her negativity. You might also teach your granddaugh- ter how to be a friend to others, so they will want to be her friend. Begin by asking your neighbors if they know any 9-year- old girls who live near you. If they do, then boldly introduce yourself to their mothers and ask them if you might invite their daughters to your house, one at a time, to meet your granddaughter when she visits. By the time they’ve watched a movie or made their own pizzas, you’ll know if their friendship is going to click or if you should move on to the next 9-year-old on your list. Your son will surely appreciate your ef-


forts as long as you don’t tell him what to do. You may know the answers, but you don’t have the right to tell your son how to rear his own child. A different school may indeed help your granddaughter, but the real problem lies within herself, and it should be addressed with love, reassur- ance and perhaps a few sessions with an art therapist or a music therapist, because the techniques they use often work better with younger children than standard psy- chotherapy.


style@washpost.com


Marguerite Kelly is a freelance writer. Questions? Send them to advice@ margueritekelly.com or to Box 15310, Washington, D.C. 20003.


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