Patrick Miceli is an urban
artist who uses research methods as a fundamental part of his creative
process. He collects, documents and preserves objects in the same manner
as a scientist; like a museum, he then displays the artifacts. In the last
15 years, regardless of his medium - photography, hyper-realistic paintings
or installation art - Miceli's work reveals an almost obsessive need to
document detailed fragments of artifacts from the urban environment. In
the early years of his career, Miceli photographed or painted these. In
his recent work, these objects become the central body of the art.
For All Ages is the final
stage of his toys installations. For All Ages is significant for the size
of the assemblage and for the involvement of the audience. In this installation,
approximately 20,000 toys were hung by 12,000 feet of white, polyester-cotton
blend string from the gallery lighting tracks. Miceli collected the giveaway
toys from the fast food industry over the last three years. The toys have
been sorted by type and tied by string to form a maze of loosely knit curtains,
12 feet high, in an area of the gallery directly under the track lighting.
The tracks form a square grid that conforms to the architectural structure
of the gallery. The arrangement of the strings and toys forms an enclosure
or a series of interlocking enclosures that become a maze. This maze is
a space or a place of contemplation where visitors are stimulated by the
charged toys and respond with their personal and collective associations.
The design of the installation creates a visual field that shifts and alternates
as the visitors walk through and around the maze. For Miceli, it is another
phase in a long walk from his childhood discoveries of objects embedded
in the streets of Chicago to the enchanting toys that are timeless and
suitable for all ages. |
