The Arts in Mercer: Perfectly Different

Butter churning typically brings to mind bonnet-wearing re-enactors who hand-mix ingredients in a wooden tub. But artists sees things a bit differently.

Tim Eads’ “3,178 minus 366” is a Rube Goldberg-like device consisting of an old exercise bike, batteries, a motor, a toaster and a butter churner. Pedaling the bike powers the churner and the toaster, so after a workout, you have butter and toast.

The piece is one of the everyday objects with a twist that make up “Perfect Citizen” an exhibit running at The Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts through June 25. The creativity and different way of thinking behind these works are just as important as the finished pieces.

Debbie Reichard, the show’s curator, says the name “Perfect Citizen” stems from a federal program designed to protect companies and government agencies from cyber attacks.

“I thought the title was a joke at first but I don’t think it is,” she says of the federal program’s name. “At the same time, I was trying to think of a title for this show.”

The unifying theme of “Perfect Citizen’s” artworks, Reichard says, is that they break rules, but in harmless, fun ways.

”It’s mischievousness and playfulness, so I wanted to say the perfect citizen is the artist, which is the opposite of what most people think,” she says. “When you say to your parents, ‘I’m going to become an artist,’ that’s not perfect. Artists generally try to turn things around in their head.”

Reichard herself is an artist who has pieces in the exhibit. Her “Hose Cubes” is exactly that, garden hoses in the shapes of cubes. Smaller hoses connect the two cubes and water flows through all of the hoses, into a plain, white bucket. A pump in the bucket keeps the water flowing out, so even though water is always flowing into the bucket, the water level doesn’t increase.

”It’s the idea of impossible,” Reichard says. “Also futility or this lack of economics, it’s very inefficient to attempt to do something like this. It’s nearly impossible, yet artists do that kind of thing all the time.”

Paul Coors’ screen prints break the rules of his art form. “Go Round” is a three-colored print (red, yellow and green) with a thin, white border. It’s stapled in the corner of the gallery’s wall. Another print, “Paper,” comes with colored pushpins and instructions as to how to place them, (it’s a sort of like a non-electric Lite Brite). Reichard says it took two people about two hours to place the thumbtacks in their proper spots.

“He’s a really fantastic screen printer,” she says. “Both of the pieces, I love them visually, and I love the way they totally mess around with screen printing. You’re not supposed to bend (a typical print) or hang it up high and you’re definitely not supposed to stick thumbtacks in it.”

In putting the exhibit together, Reichard featured works by artists from across the country, along with area artists. Coors is from Cincinnati. Erin Riley, who has two tapestries of highways in the exhibit, is from Cape Cod. Colorado artist Yumi Janairo Roth is exhibiting “Pinata (cones),” traffic cones made of crepe paper.

One of the local artists is Aron Johnston, whose “20090714 BOP: PB.NJ” is a photograph of a painted sign that he placed at the Princeton Battlefield. The sign looks digitized, like a surveillance map, but it was painted by Johnston. And you know those signs you see at historic sites describing what you’re looking at? According to Reichard, Johnston places his own signs to historic sites and watches as visitors read them. Talk about mischievous. “He’s interested in how much trust we have,” Reichard says.

Some of the pieces make use of video. Andrew Wilkinson’s “Output” is a W.B. Mason carton used to hold paper. From a distance it looks as if the box was left lying around by accident, but on its top there is a monitor showing a paper copier churning away.

Andrew Demirjian’s video installation “Scenes From Next Week” shows the artist living his life. We see him doing laundry, washing dishes and throwing away the trash. At one point, the screen is divided into sections and in each one, we see Demirjian searching through his refrigerator, each square represents a different day of the week. The images are all pretty similar, except for the artist’s clothes.

An artist talk and butter churning event with Eads will be held at the gallery. Eads will actually use his art piece to make butter and toast. As strange as Reichard’s device is, the event should make for an enjoyable evening for anyone, not just art enthusiasts. That’s part of Reichard’s goal of presenting an accessible, and inspiring, exhibit.

“I want these artists to lead by example,” she says. “And to say to other people, You can paint like this, look at something and turn it around.”

Perfect Citizen is on view at the Paul Robeson Center For the Arts, 102 Witherspoon St., Princeton, through June 25. An artist talk and butter churning event with Tim Eads is schedule for May 23, 5-7 p.m. Admission is free. For information, go to www.artscouncilofprinceton.org or the exhibit’s Kickstarter website.