Symbols Change Hands at Art Show Turned Swap Meet
If you want this Iranian necklace, you'll have to bring something with personal meaning to trade.
(Floating Lab Collective)
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What would you give for a handcrafted necklace made of a dozen royal blue, heart-shaped stones? Let's say you knew it was Iranian, a gift from an aunt to a niece who left the country 30 years ago, at age 14, and has never gone back.
What would it be worth to you then?
How about a World War II bullet found in the late 1960s by a Boy Scout camping with his troop in France?
Is there anything you'd trade to own that?
The Floating Lab Collective is hoping to get to the bottom of these questions with a three-day interactive exhibit called "Bartering in the Land of Abundance." Held at the Transformer Gallery at 14th and P streets NW, the event seeks to explore "how we identify ourselves with objects," says Edgar Endress, a founding member of the collective. "What people value and don't value -- it's interesting."
The work began when members of the collective dropped bags at seven neighborhoods (and one Catholic church) across the Washington area, explaining the project and asking people who want to participate to put an object -- along with a note describing its story and significance -- in the bag for pickup three days later.
The bullet and necklace were among the items collected. Starting yesterday and continuing through Saturday, the public is invited to bring objects of their own to trade (they can be large or small, cheap or costly) as long as they have personal meaning. Curators from the collective will document the trades, stories and interactions and will ultimately cull the evidence into a show at the Katzen Arts Center at American University this fall.
"Whatever the object . . . it might not be meaningful if you found it in a thrift store," Endress says. "But the moment you associate it with a story, it becomes symbolic and meaningful. And that's what art is about, in a way."
· " Bartering in the Land of Abundance," Friday and Saturday 1 to 7 p.m. Transformer Gallery,
1404 P St. NW. 202-483-1102. Free.http:/
Glen Echo's Labor Day Art Show
If you haven't been to this amusement park turned retro arts haven in a while, now's the time. The works of more than 200 artists will be on display (and on sale) Saturday through Monday, plus you can catch performances by Irish step dancers, fiddlers and singers.
· Saturday-Monday noon to 6 p.m.; opening reception is tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. Glen Echo, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. 301-634-2222. Free.
