“Taking good care of your things leads to taking good care of yourself”
Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
September 27, 2019 – April 12, 2020
Take Care Relief, 2019
felt, polystyrene
The Problem with Family, 2019
items borrowed from Barbara Luderowski and Michael Olijnyk: 19th century display case (nickel, glass, wood); Victorian wax wedding hands; bird’s nest; magic wand; carved wood figures with graphite by Barbara Luderowsk (c. 1979); miniature wooden replica of the bed Barbara was conceived in, by her father Paul Simpson (c. 1963); cast beeswax ex-voto by Ann Hamilton (1991); mushroom (John Cage reincarnated, maybe, long story); sterling silver plaque by Jenny Holzer (gifted 2011); plastic harpy by Kiki Smith (2002); glass box with human and cat teeth (Michael’s, Goodzik’s, and Pahn’s); Mexican folk figurine (plaster, wire, paint); carved ivory or bone hands; ceramic spirits container (c. 1900); ceramic Frozen Charlotte dolls with string; Fornasetti plate; Japanese paper house with glitter; glass and plastic eyes with supports; glass lenses; carved wooden folk figurine; the necklace of “Mo Balls” Barbara had planned on making so I made it (felted cat hair and thread); Japanese miniature chairs (wood and fabric); bat; hummingbird
In order to participate in a history of scars on this building, 2019
Fred’s blood in vial in floorboard, Eternity® Rose in floorboard
My Mountain, 2019
bronze, fingernails, glass, stoneware, porcelain, earthenware, glazes, pink marble, stones, quartz, porcelain tooth, disco ball fragment, plastic gemstone, Swarovski crystal, wasp, agate, mole hand, 3D printed bronze cherry stem, plastic glasses, sticker, flower charms, beetle shell, pyrite, glass shard, butterfly wing, Jeromie’s earring, plastic vampire tooth, bone, conch shell, Fred’s blood, cotton, mannequin hand, forged steel, cast iron, foam, moving blankets
Only Things (Hoarders S1:E1), 2015
video
“Taking good care of your things leads to taking good care of yourself” is an exhibition by Adam Milner which articulates and confuses spaces of the museum, home, body, archive, and hoard. Milner, who is suspicious of tidying philosophies and how systems of organization exist in hierarchies, has created a practice which attempts to deal with the things around him through conflicting gestures of collecting, purging, containing, and releasing.
The exhibition gleans its title from an Instagram post by Marie Kondo, whose books and Netflix show about tidying up have made her a household name. The quote, and Kondo’s empire in general, are a reminder of our complicated relationships to the things around us, and how we cling to things – but also, how they sometimes cling back. Milner’s sprawling and idiosyncratic practice draws upon aesthetics of museum and retail display, domestic interiors, and TV shows like Hoarders and Kondo’s Tidying Up. The sculptures in this grouping employ various strategies of containment, and point to the paradox that efforts to contain something can embody dueling philosophies of care and control, love and domination.
Included in the installation is a complicated selection of objects on loan from the private collection of late Mattress Factory founder Barbara Luderowski (1930–2018) and [co-director?] Michael Olijnyk, whose home exists on the sixth floor of the museum’s main building. By borrowing and rearranging Luderowski and Olijinyk’s deeply personal collection, Milner addresses the context of this museum’s past and present to point to the way the things around us form our identities, blur with our bodies, and contribute to our legacies.
Fabrication
Glass: Jason Forck, Josh Messmer, Chris Hofmann
Marble: Workshop of Gustavo Nequiz
Bronze: Foundry Campanas Sonoras
Steel/Iron: Ed Parrish Jr.
Assistance
Wall Installation: Richena Brockinson, Sovia e Bossemeyer, Mattie Cannon, Matt Constant, Annie Dovali, Sarah Hallett, Joshua Challen Ice, Julie Maher, Kristina Mengis, Riley Morrin, Bridget Quirk
Thank you Fred Blauth, Anuar Maauad, Gloria Paniagua, Adam Welch, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, UArk Clay Break, Vermont Studio Center
Photos by Tom Little and Adam Milner