Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Something Fishy at the Anderson Art Center

The retreat and the exhibition for the Tapestry Weavers South was and is held at the Anderson Art Center. There's something fishy going on there. We'll start here. Can you tell what this is???? I'll let you think about that a bit and tell you about other features to the center. This is an renovated CSX warehouse in downtown Anderson. There are many features that I love about the building. The large open spaces and the interior brick walls. But the engineer in me particularly enjoyed the elevators. It seems these are not what one would expect where there's a floor and something rides up and down on that floor. It's seems to be more of a crane that lift and lowers. Of course the holes in the floor no longer exist, but the framing and lift remain.
The new way of getting up and down is a set of stairs in the center of the building. Artist John Acorn took drawings made by children and went through thousands of rivets in the treads to recreate the drawings. Replicas of the 19 treads are available for purchase. It's certainly something to smile at as you wander around!
Fish really are a theme at the Anderson Art Center. Why I don't really know, but there was this fish hanging on the wall with this enormous glass eye and copper body. This one is about 2 feet long - and that's not a "fish tale" If you think that's big, he seems to have a big brother right across the was that was easily 4 feet long. He was hanging across from the stairs so I could get views from multiple sides.
Okay the there are more fish that seem to be from one of those community events where people and businesses sponsor a fish and local artists decorate them to have them displayed around town. These were only about a foot long, so maybe someone decided they would be safer at the center.
So there is the fish, but what is fishy at the Anderson Art Center? It turns out that first picture is a flurinal that is in the women's bathroom at the top of those wonderful stairs!!! I'll let you read the display beside it for yourself!

6 comments:

Theresa said...

Fishy!!!?? I'd say that is a whale of wonderful exhibit. The steps are amazing. I'll have to check their web site for the reproductions.

Theresa said...

Yikes, I just caught on and read what the replicas are going for. I think they will have to keep mine safe there for a long while. ;-)

Jennifer said...

Yes they are a bit expensive, but it's a great idea that could be easily done yourself!

kaiteM said...

interesting story and pics, thanks for sharing them. K.

Life Looms Large said...

Cool fish!!! I love the giant copper ones!

The stair treads are a really nice touch!!

That's a wonderful exhibit space! I think it needs some tapestry!!

Sue

Jennifer said...

Permanent tapestry would be a great idea there - hopefully after the exhibit, the curator will consider that!