ART: Lynn Aldrich, Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design

What a witty, easy and thoughtful artist and exhibit.  So hard to place joy and fun in art; Alexander Calder, William Wegman do it so well, but mostly it's as if it makes the art less gravid, and this interpreted as less important and valuable.  That's what the market will do when status and commodification distort value - and when don't they?  

Worm Hole, 2003 - a series of cardboard tubes covered with yellow pages  like commercial  messages lined with faux neon fur - don't know whether to crawl in it or try to communicate through it.

How I love this collection of humble gutters, looking like a herd of elephants or the pipes of an organ, such grace in that little curve that directs the water on to ground.  I wish to push them and hear the clangor.

A bird cage stuffed with bird wings and feathers, quite grotesque.  Reminds me always of early Annette Messager and her poignant sweaters knitted for dead birds.

Of course vinyl hose should wind this way - like old pottery coils, snakes, planet rotation.

Of course, this is good too, the wave rising, snakes and undersea creatures extended lean into space. 

This waterfall is actually wax paper, and it is utterly beautiful, transformed into the most exquisite paper imaginable in the light and flow.

How could this be anything but named "Water Table"?  Rippling plastic remind us how fragile we are, beneath the humble clay and mud, the gray stretch of concrete.

All those Mike Kelley stuffed animal piles, slutty swanky goth fake animal clothing, discarded bad sofas on curbs, zebra skin rugs, alligator shoes and bags -the contradiction in the stuffing, purpose and use.  Why neon pink fur?  Are we so needy of novel stimulation as that? Yeah. Poor us.

Above my grandson tries to pick out the pattern purloined from some poor animal  which animal would hate its change the most? Which was the most heretical?  Which use repurposed most shamefully?  Were any attractive?

What grace  looks like:
sunbeams stream down to earth. Iconic. It's actually sewing thread artfully lit.

The drapery of a bridal veil and train, precious textiles, precious water, the beautiful wax paper flows down the side of the wall, the humble daily material transformed into wonder.