Elenor Wilson
American Tourister Still Life
ceramic
Milwaukee Art Museum, 2014
Formed of fragile white porcelain, American Tourister Still Life by Elenor Wilson displays how luggage becomes furniture to a traveler. Speaking to the fleeting nature of style, the feet of the “furniture” and the lady’s high-heeled shoes, discarded nearby, underscore the transient nature of fashion. Trends flow through time and reappear, re-imagined. The feet of the furniture belong to the Victorian era, the heels and Coke bottle connect to mid-century and the luggage to the 1970’s in this object created in 2009. We form materials, but the materials we surround ourselves with have the ability to form us.
