Wisconsin’s century-old state Capitol, a work of art that contains so much other art, has inspired its own exhibit. The Capitol at 100: Madison Artists Celebrate the Centennial is on display in the Playhouse Gallery of the Overture Center through Jan. 14.
All of Madison’s three Capitol buildings are represented in one way or another. Tom Jones even reaches to prehistory, with “A Ho-Chunk Landscape,” its two harsh, ghostly stumps representing the land shortly after white settlement.
Lisa Frank’s “A Handbook of Ornament” makes a warm and colorful photo kaleidoscope of the Capitol’s interior sconces and other lights. Eric Baillies’ hypnotic photos make icons of the building’s outdoor lights and urns. His images were created by collodion process, a painstaking 160-year-old glass plate technique. “Each plate goes through a 28-step preparation before it can be exposed and then developed before being printed,” says Baillies. “The labor and skill of achieving these results is something I have worked extremely hard at for the last five years.” The effort is worth it.
Contemporary politics comes up often in the exhibit. For example, Lewis Koch’s photographic print, “Capitol Offense (Democracy Obscured)” represents the building as “a black hole.”
Gregory Vershbow’s photographic prints on aluminum present images that are almost whimsical, portraying the Capitol sinking into Madison lakes — or, rather, the lakes rising up to claim the building.
“The images first entered my mind when [Gov. Scott] Walker ordered the [Department of Natural Resources] to remove all references to climate change from their website,” says Vershbow. “I wondered how high the water level in the Capitol would have to rise before the government recognized that there was a problem.”
A recurring theme in the exhibit is Aldo Leopold, celebrated in Yvette Pino’s “The Integrated Transect of a Century,” which also salutes the naturalist’s wife, Estella. Part painting, part text, the work includes sculptural elements.
One of the smaller, more subtle and exciting pieces is Leah Evans’ “Power and Light.” Her textile art replicates Madison’s isthmus in violet over black lakes, with delicate knots and tiny beads representing population density, energy use and light pollution.
The exhibit includes no sculpture, but it celebrates historic sculptural works. Jean Pond Miner’s “Forward” is replicated in a collage by Brenda Baker and Bird Ross that includes photos of dozens of women, each reinterpreting the iconic statue at the head of State Street. Several works feature Helen Farnsworth Mears’ winged “Genius of Wisconsin,” which originally graced the rotunda of Madison’s second Capitol building.
Randall Berndt’s graphite drawing, “The Return of the Native: Uber Badger Contends with Ms. Beaux-Arts Wisconsin” is a riotous war of state symbols. Berndt says he was influenced by the humorous drawings of Wisconsin artist Warrington Colescott. “I am always searching in my drawings for the never-before-seen images that make a narrative that expresses the strange humor in life all around us,” says Berndt.
Additional artists in the exhibit include Michael Duffy, Patrick Flynn, Helen Klebesadel, John Miller and Beth Racette.
The Capitol at 100 was curated by Martha Glowacki and sponsored by the Madison Community Foundation.
A reception for The Capitol at 100 will be held on Jan. 12, 6 to 8 p.m.
