by Lynn Woods
Four years ago, Longyear Gallery member Hedi Kyle had an idea: why not transform the cabinet of shelves in the hallway just outside the gallery entrance into a miniature gallery of sorts, displaying objects and artworks related to a specific theme. After she brainstormed the idea with fellow gallery member Elaine Grandy, the “Cabinet of Curiosities” was born, and ever since the mini-exhibitions of ephemera, small paintings and drawings, charts, vintage advertisements, and objects ranging from stones and seeds to cleaning supplies and rubber duckies to iron tools, has been fascinating visitors on their way in or out of the gallery.
Since Elaine’s passing, gallery member Louise Kalin has been working with Hedi on the displays, which involve coming up with a theme and collecting items, many of which are contributed by members. “We email the members to put anything that goes with the themes in our cubby holes, and then we put it all together and make sense of it,” says Hedi; arranging the display takes four to five hours. The exhibits are changed out every two months, and the themes have included fish, stones, sticks, toys, paper, tools, lists and even cleaning equipment. “With each theme, you start looking at things differently and discover new associations,” Hedi says. Seeing the sculptural qualities of a sponge, rake or mushroom, for example, the rhythmic interest of a row of chisels, the rich variety of colors and textures in a box of feathers, is part of the fun. Adding graphic interest are the magazine covers, pages, and ads contributed by Hedi’s husband, Juergen Menningen, from his extensive archive of old magazines.
There’s also a quasi-scientific aspect, a kind of categorization of objects belonging to the species, say, of toys, or the color yellow. Indeed, Hedi brings to the Cabinet of Curiosities curatorial experience and a practiced eye: while employed as a book conservator at the American Philosophic Society, which was founded by Ben Franklin and is located in Philadelphia, Hedi helped select and curate the objects in the organization’s display cases. Previously, she was a book conservator at the New York Botanical Garden and American Museum of Natural History. She also taught at the University of the Arts and all the while, made her own books. (After leaving Philly in 2012, she and her husband moved to Pine Hill fulltime in 2013.)
Louise says that each mini-exhibition has a “lovely underpinning of poetic structure,” which in the case of the Feathers exhibit, was organized around a literal poem, Emily Dickinson’s ““Hope” is the thing with feathers.” She describes the display as “an enormous collage.” The theme of the current exhibit is Notebooks, which makes for a particularly rich exploration of the ideas of notation, physical books, sketchpads, diaries, scrapbooks, even a stitched book, in the case of an item donated by Longyear member Gail Freund. So next time you’ve stepped into the hall, be sure to take a look; it will be well rewarded. The cabinet is “always lit,” notes Hedi, and if you want to take a closer look, make an appointment with her and she’ll open the cabinet at your request.
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