We’re all keen on a cool rock. I’ve definitely amassed a set of some neat stones from driveways and seashores in my 27 years. However are they artwork? If that’s the case … Is nature the artist? On the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Artwork Museum (stylized “/m” for brief) at St. John’s School in Annapolis, Maryland, an exhibition of gongshi, naturally formed rocks valued by Chinese language literati because the Tang dynasty, broaches this very query with the assistance of its inaugural scholar-in-residence — Bai Jo, the Big Oranda goldfish (also called the “bubble-headed” goldfish).
You may verify your calendar all you need, however Bai Jo’s residency is not any April Fools’ joke. Reportedly hailing from Anne Arundel County’s Stormwater Infrastructure Administration administration workforce after clearing his civil service examination in 2023, Bai Jo (also called “Parsley” to the /m workforce) assumed the brand new function on the museum throughout its Nature’s Readymades exhibition. Organized by Peter Nesbett and Shelly Bancroft, the exhibition brings collectively a collection of gongshi from the Nationwide Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, DC, and continues on the museum by way of Sunday, April 6, although Bai Jo’s residency has been prolonged by way of July.
Via the exhibition, Nesbett and Bancroft encourage guests to contemplate if there could be artwork with out artists, or if nature itself could be thought-about an artist, as demonstrated by the naturally formed rocks on show. For hundreds of years, students have discovered knowledge, magnificence, and even miniature worlds of their crags, crevices, and legible shapes, deciphering them as proof of Qi, the inside life or religious pressure inside the universe that animates the physique.
On the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Museum of Artwork inside St. John’s School in Annapolis, inaugural scholar-in-resident Bai Jo conducts day-to-day enterprise in his given workplace within the Nature’s Readymades exhibition.
Bai Jo, together with his fluorescent orange-ness and unpredictable actions, resides among the many gongshi in Nature’s Readymades.
“He shares something important with the rocks, and that is an ambiguous relationship to the museum,” Nesbett and Bancroft expressed to Hyperallergic. “Gongshi are aesthetic objects — they are meant to be looked at. That said, they lack many attributes intrinsic to artistic objects: They aren’t made by humans, are un-authored, and undated.”
However they underscore that it’s the identical case for Bai Jo, noting that “he is alien to this space.”
The curators added: “We should remind you that while you contrast the vitality of Bai Jo with rocks, the latter are equally ‘alive.’”
An set up view of Nature’s Readymades, together with Bai Jo’s quarters
Nesbett and Bancroft said that Bai Jo’s scholarly residency has been well-received by guests thus far, and his presence additional provokes questions on animals and nature as each artwork objects and artists.
Nonetheless, not everyone seems to be attuned to the fantastic thing about gongshi. The curators informed Hyperallergic that there are attendees “who are disappointed that an AAM-accredited museum like /m is exhibiting ‘a bunch of rocks.’”
Although the gongshi featured in Nature’s Readymades are aesthetic objects, in addition they embody miniature worlds that emulate our personal environment. Viewing them in each comparability and distinction to the encompassing setting outdoor is ideal for contemplation.
