Rethinking the Familiar

The Louisiana Art & Science Museum will welcome two additional exhibitions this summer. The first, Frameworks of Absence: Brandon Ballengée, examines the importance of biodiversity through an examination of species we’ve lost. Ballengée, a research scientist as well as an artist, has become known in recent years for his haunting images of the stripped, stained remains of marine species, an elegy on the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. Another series, Frameworks of Absence, consists of altered naturalist prints depicting species that are now extinct; Ballengée carefully excises the image of the lost animal itself from its surroundings, burns the paper, and places the ashes into a reliquary urn to accompany the cutout picture. Some sixty of these animals are memorialized, arranged loosely from gone-the-longest to most recently extinct; patrons can explore the ideas further by perusing the Book of the Dead, an iPad program featuring more images of and information about vanished species. Presented as an installation, Brandon's altered prints are accompanied by representative specimens of endangered animals on loan from the LSU Museum of Natural History. Frameworks of Absence will be on display through August 11. Ballengée will give a talk at the museum to accompany the work; the date is still TBD, but you can stay abreast of this and other programming at lasm.org.

More playful but just as thought-provoking, the traveling exhibit ReTooled: Highlights from the Hechinger Collection looks at tools as artforms. Hardware company owner John Hechinger began collecting art that used or drew information from tools in the 1980s to liven up his corporation’s new headquarters; the collection took on a life of its own, comprising works examining varying facets of the human relationship to tools. A glass hammer, an upholstered paintbrush, a whimsically refashioned lawnmower, and other works are arranged according to four themes: Objects of Beauty, Material Illusions, Instruments of Satire, and Tools: An Extension of Self. ReTooled will be at the museum June 1 through August 6; accompanying programming will include a related display of antique tools on loan from the LSU Rural Life Museum and Tools Week July 7–13, during which local artisans will visit  the Museums to further patrons’ exploration of the tools we use, thinking or unthinking, to shape our world. Information and this and other events can be found at lasm.org.