Tina Casagrand's Salus Populi

Rain ruined the hike we planned yesterday, so Eva, Brendan, Ted and I went to Artichoke Annie’s!  After working in Heartland Antique Mall for two years, I’m no stranger to this enterprise of material culture.  Nevertheless, no antique mall experience can ever replicate another one (contrast that with outlet malls, where the shopping by its very nature is homogeneous).

My art history professor Kristen Schwain usually finds a way to mention Artichoke Annie’s in everyday conversation.  When she brought a panther TV lamp to class on Thursday, I knew the time had come to journey east on I-70.  Sadly, I couldn’t photograph all the hundreds of curious items. My biggest regret is not getting a shot of the Howard Taft campaign buttons.  I’ll return soon though–we only saw a third of the store!  Click on the pictures for more descriptions.

In Dr. Schwain’s class, Intro to Visual Culture, I get to do a long-range research paper, which I’ll augment with online media.  I’m going to have fun with it, so really the most challenging task is to pick one object.  Salt and pepper shakers, with an accompanying spring break trip to the Gatlinburg, TN, Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum?  My butterfly earrings that Gramma gave me?  How about the hillbilly with  windmill arms at Rolla’s Mule Trading Post?  It’s iconic, local, and could be easy to research.

The most captivating pieces of visual culture, to me, are old postcards and photographs.  Reading other people’s messages in their own handwriting fulfills more than simple curiosity.  It connects us to emotion in the past and reminds us of humanity.  I found a cute card addressed to Decaturville, MO that on the back read something like “You are a PUNK for not writing more often!”  It reminded me that A) People actually live in Decauterville (The town’s 15 minutes north of Lebanon; you can literally hold your breath between the population signs) and B) Some communication tensions never change.

The same goes for pictures of people.  Some are so faded, and the faces so stoic, that it’s easy to glaze over them.  Others grip your attention with urgent, imploring eyes.  Without labels, the photographs allow imagination to take over about relationships, names, occupations and locations.

But some locations we know and can revisit.  When he played here in Columbia, Steve Earle talked about his home in New York City, and how he often points tourists in the right direction to recreate the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album cover.  Similarly, I just read an article titled “Time Travel on the Cheap” on NPR’s Picture Show Blog.  Here’s what Robert Krulwich said about this phenomenon:

…And if by some magic I could fetch that photo, I could hold it in front of me and see the Room That Was while standing in the Room That Is. With a flick of my eye I could travel across time from now to then. This is time travel on the cheap.

How eloquent.

If you know of any local art, artifact, or visual curiosity that could be cool to write about, please let me know!  We have to turn in our ideas by Thursday.