Photo Courtesy of Jenny Yu ‘24
By Lucy Oster ’23 & Lenox Johnson ’24
Staff Writers
In her art, Lenka Clayton takes a unique, multimedia approach. From films about aging to historical plaques, the artist brings an interdisciplinary approach to all of her pieces, and her new work at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum is no exception.
Photo Courtesy of Jenny Yu ‘24
Clayton spoke to the Mount Holyoke College community in person on Oct. 28 for the Patricia and Edward Falkenberg Lecture about her exhibition, “Comedy and Tragedy,” which is currently on view at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. “Comedy and Tragedy” uses objects originally collected throughout the lifetime of Joseph Allen Skinner, worked by Clayton into new pieces of art. One piece includes two gloves from Skinner’s collection, one of which is geologically petrified; Clayton titled this piece, “Petrified Glove. Brave Glove.”
The exhibition, Skinner Museum 75, celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Joseph Allen Skinner Museum bequest to Mount Holyoke College. In August 2022, the exhibition will include pieces by Vanessa German, an American artist and activist. Clayton and German were originally intended to share the space as a duo and find ways to utilize the objects curated from Skinner Museum in a synthesized exhibition of both of their creative efforts. The artists were encouraged to engage with the space however they wanted, a freedom Clayton saw as daunting. During her talk, Clayton shared, “I’m really big on limitations.” She said that the “most frightening sentence is ‘you can do whatever you want.’ I hate that.”
COVID-19 prompted an abrupt shift in the original trajectory of the 75th anniversary exhibition. The curation process, once hands-on, became characterized by the constant exchange of photographs, email and communication across various remote platforms. Clayton and German’s collaboration was split into two individual exhibitions, juxtaposing their distinct voices and calling attention to the contrasting material interpretations of the two artists. After months of back and forth, Clayton’s “Comedy and Tragedy” began to take shape.
Associate Curator of Visual and Material Culture and NAGPRA Coordinator at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Aaron Miller, has worked closely with Clayton since the fruition of Skinner Museum 75 in 2019. As close collaborators, Clayton and Miller worked in tandem to ensure the behind the scenes efforts evolved into the most earnest possible representation of Clayton’s vision. The remote approach to the curation process required more attention to detail. Despite the trials of the pandemic, Miller found the process to be enjoyable.
Several members of the Mount Holyoke community responded positively to Clayton’s work. Claire Williamson ’23 attended Clayton’s talk and found the artist to be inspiring.
“Something that I find interesting about her art is that a lot of it was videos and stuff: simple things … I wouldn’t have the vision to do something like that, to put it together.”
Tricia Paik, the Florence Finch Abbott Director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, was previously interested in Clayton’s work. Paik encouraged Mount Holyoke students to visit Clayton’s, and then German’s, exhibitions. “Lenka Clayton is this exceptional artist … and she’s actually interested in museum collections. So I was really fascinated by her work, and we started thinking it would be wonderful to have Clayton work with us,” Paik said.
In her work, Clayton aims to bring a unique perspective to the objects in the Skinner collection. In creating duets between objects that might never ordinarily interact, Clayton brings a new, fresh significance to their histories. Clayton is in the business of flipping narratives.
“The works are made up of objects that already have these very diverse and dynamic histories,” Clayton said. “I’m placing them in … situations together where they would never normally end up together. They have this new narrative between them [in the] meeting [of] objects that wouldn’t normally meet.”
One of Clayton’s Skinner 75 pieces, “Meteorite at its Highest Height in 50,000 Years,” requires the suspension of a 115 pound iron and nickel meteorite from the museum ceiling. The piece intends to pay homage to the long journey the meteorite has taken by returning the object to its rightful place above ground, a fitting place for an object that, “since the beginning of time itself, has had the freedom of flight,” the artist’s statement about the piece reads.
“Our brains are hardwired to make up a story where we have a fragment of something. That’s what happens when you have resonant objects that are incomplete in some way,” Clayton said. “My work here is about objects that point you strongly towards something, but don’t answer everything about it. Leave you in a place of thought, but don’t give you the answers.”
Clayton’s first in-person encounter with the exhibition was on Oct. 28, one month after its opening.
“[Seeing] photographs and … being live in the space is not the same,” Miller said. “It was interesting being with an artist seeing their work for the first time.”
According to Miller, the Skinner Museum has become deeply integrated into the teaching mission of the College and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in the last decade. Paik emphasized the uniqueness of Skinner’s collection and the importance of utilizing it. “I don’t know [another] small, liberal arts college that has a collection like this … with objects from across the continents and across time,” Paik said.
It is largely due to the Skinner Museum collection that different artists, like Clayton and German, can showcase their distinct takes on aspects of the same collection. “The expanse of the objects is pretty remarkable and we really wanted to celebrate it,” Paik said.
Clayton’s “Comedy and Tragedy” will conclude with the creation of a digital media piece showing the making of one of the pieces in the exhibit, “Remainder,” which displays the pouring of archival-grade sand into graduated vessels arranged in descending size order, the sand overflowing freely. The film will ensure that Clayton’s work at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum can be appreciated long after its disassembly. Miller emphasized the lasting impact Clayton’s exhibit will have, saying, “Even though most of these works are temporary, they’re created with objects from the museum. It’ll have that tangible part of it that goes on.”
In fostering the collaboration of contemporary artists and historic objects, the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum is giving new life to the Skinner Museum collection. Fresh perspectives and interpretations from artists like Clayton give Skinner Museum 75 its innovative edge. Clayton’s “Comedy and Tragedy” will be on display through May 29, 2022.
“Some of the magic of what she does is look at things in ways that are unexpected, but also make so much sense,” Miller said. “She has that unique ability to share with others, her own way of seeing the world.”