December 23, 2006: Cap shed

[Undertoad]

It's just an ordinary shed. xoB send these along; I'm not sure he meant for them to be IotD, but I know you all will want to take a look at...



...this 'bottle cap monument' in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.



The website Interesting Ideas presents this in higher quality. They say:

It's not the most expressive bit of folk art ever, but this decorated shed in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, is an example of the kind of vernacular creativity that comes at great effort but goes away quickly, almost casually. The vintage is 1950s. The fate is uncertain, but the barn is said to be out of compliance with zoning rules and will be demolished to make way for new construction. The bottle caps are attached to panels that could, in theory, be removed for reconstruction elsewhere.

Classification of art is an IotD thing; "what you can get away with" is a fine definition in some ways, I like the thought. Here is something not really intended as art, but if we want to look at it from that perspective, it gets interesting to me. So I'll get all wordy and intellectual... about bottle caps...

Did the person just go into the shed, drink, and put these up as he went along?

Did he close the door when he drank?

Are they all his own caps or did he use the caps of others? The fact that it's all here in this shed, suggests a lone drinker, not a social one. Is that sad, or is it just life? If the person found some level of joy doing this, do we have sort of a responsibility to think of the happiness of it?

Does my assumption of this as a male activity have merit to you? In my most P.C./feminist of moments, I can't imagine this being the work of a woman.

Is it not art because the person who did it, didn't think of it as art?

Lastly, a technical note. I always find it interesting when a picture doesn't get along with the JPEG format. These images were still massive at 800x600 pixels in high quality JPG. The many patterns and colors really push the format. Those who want better and bigger images, and who have the bandwidth, should see the higher-quality shots at Interesting Ideas, where they are presented in 1024x768 and higher quality.