Review

A review of Mel Ziegler's Smell the Flowers

Mel Ziegler, detail of "Occupied Yosemite," mantle and model materials, 65" x 60" x 12", 2010. Image: photo Shannon Clark, courtesy of the artist and museum

Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art
Nashville, Tennessee
October 9, 2010 — February 20, 2011

Mel Ziegler’s Smell the Flowers exhibition at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art is rife with ideas, but consists of only four artworks. In this case, having less is not necessarily a good thing: the weighty topics Ziegler tackles and the connections he seeks to make between the works warrant a deeper investigation than the limited number of works on display. With only two sculptures, documentation from a public event, and a photographic diptych on view, the exhibition feels more like a short story when a novel is in order.

An ambitious conceptual aim is expected from Ziegler, whose idea-rich projects with his late wife Kate Ericson first brought the pair acclaim in the late 1980s. Best known for their process of closely collaborating with the community, Ziegler and Ericson created public art projects praised both in and outside of the art world. Their thoughtful, audience-centric process resulted in welcome alternatives to the public art projects being mindlessly plopped onto corporate plazas.

In this latest site-specific project, Zeigler attempts to use the botanical garden as a metaphor for ideas related to the military and war. Zeigler interprets the gates that visitors pass through in order to enter Cheekwood as similar to border patrol in how it differentiates “us” and “them.” The stillness of the gardens signify escape from the chaos of war, while the act of cultivating foreign plants can be compared to the occupation of another country. Unfortunately, these ideas are not fully realized in the exhibition.

Mel Ziegler, "Military Day at Cheekwood," photograph, 6" x 9", 2010. Image: photo Vesna Pavlovic, courtesy of the museum and artist

Ziegler is still utilizing the public in his work, and in Smell the Flowers he staged a Military Day on October 2, 2010. Consistent with his method of enlisting the community as co-creators, more than 230 soldiers and their families chose to visit the museum and gardens for free that day, as documented in photographs tacked onto the gallery wall. Ziegler’s original intention had been for the military personnel to dress in uniform while exploring the grounds, but since service members are not allowed to wear their uniforms unless conducting official business, they were instead dressed casually.

From an outreach perspective, Military Day was a success because it attracted a large number of first-time visitors. In terms of an art project, it is less successful. Without the important connotations of the uniform present, Ziegler lost an opportunity to create a powerful evocation of military occupation in this tranquil setting. In turn, the documentary photographs resemble images from a typical Saturday afternoon at any museum. Had the participants been in uniform, however, the project would have attracted different criticisms regarding the exploitation of unwitting subjects in fulfilling an artist’s agenda.

Mel Ziegler, "Military Day at Cheekwood," photograph, 6" x 9", 2010. Image: photo Barry Noland, courtesy of the museum and artist

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Mel Ziegler, "Rock Hard Individualism," stone and aluminum brackets, 68" x 33" x 7", 2010. Image: photo Shannon Clark, courtesy of the artist and museum

The more successful and thought provoking artworks in the exhibition are two wall sculptures, Rock Hard Individualism and Occupied Yosemite. The former consists of more than a hundred rocks with what loosely resemble facial features carved into them. The rocks are arranged on the wall in the shape of the United States. Reminiscent of Korean artist Do-Ho Suh, who employs hundreds of military dog tags to create a single shape, Ziegler’s faces could be viewed as both distinct and homogenous. Like Suh, Ziegler challenges the fine line in military culture between strength in numbers and conformity versus individualism.

Mel Ziegler, installation view of "Occupied Yosemite," mantle and model materials, 65" x 60" x 12", 2010. Image: photo Shannon Clark, courtesy of the artist and museum

Occupied Yosemite features a fireplace mantle painted in the official White House color (“White House White”) with a miniature model of Yosemite National Park on top. Occupying the landscape are soldiers hiding behind trees and aiming weapons at an unseen enemy.

Ziegler has used paint color names to expose hidden ironies before. In Eminent Domain from 1993, Ziegler and Ericson worked with people from a low-income housing complex to revise the approved paint colors in their homes from identifiers like “FHA Gingerbread" to "Scattered-Site Coral" in order to reflect their social and economic situation while empowering the residents in a small way.

Ziegler employs this device in Occupied Yosemite to highlight the disparate and veiled worlds of soldiers on the front line against the decision-makers who determine their fate. While we might associate the mantle and White House with safety and warmth, here they are symbolized as stark and cold. The war scene also defies expectations with its toy-like, idealized depiction of a battlefield and absence of a visible threat. This inconsistency between perception and reality reminds viewers not only to question their assumptions, but also that truth remains unknowable to the outsider.

While these sculptures stimulate conversation and marshal reaction, the other half of Smell the Flowers leaves viewers wanting more. Since process is an integral part of Ziegler’s work, it is critical to know more about his intention for Military Day and how he involved the community in developing the concept. Without this background, Ziegler’s bold proposal could be mistaken for the kind of meaningless public art he built a career defying.

-re-

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