Interactive Sheldon exhibit invokes discussion among patrons

Art enthusiasts do not often enter galleries where they are encouraged to touch the exhibits.

However, this is the main goal of "The Harlequin Coat: ORLAN" exhibit at Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. The artist featured in the exhibit wants viewers to experience the art first-hand.

ORLAN, the moniker of French artist Mireille Suzanne Francette Porte, has created an interactive exhibit that provokes discussion on what it is to be human, especially in terms of gender and ethnicity. This exhibit continues the museum's focus on female artists this season and their unconventional methods of getting their messages across. "The Harlequin Coat" certainly fulfills this artistic expression of ideas.

"Art has been defined by male standards throughout history," said Daniel Veneciano, director of the Sheldon. "So if women want to stand out, they have to do something different."

For the past four decades, ORLAN has established herself as an artist that uses radical methods to critique nearly every aspect of the human form, addressing how we define ourselves in terms of gender, race, religion and beauty. The artist has used her own body to demonstrate such critiques, and she is especially well known for her series of cosmetic procedures that reconfigured her face as a judgment of beauty standards imposed on women.

ORLAN's "Harlequin Coat" project is an exhibition that primarily explores beauty standards and multiculturalism, borrowing the patchwork motif of the commedia dell'arte character, the harlequin.

"Harlequin is a trickster, which seems like a good fit for what she's trying to say," said Sarah Baker-Hansen, public relations and marketing manager for the Sheldon.

According to literature about the exhibit, the multicolored fabric of the harlequin character used in this project is representative of the fragmented, multilayered, multifaceted pieces of human existence.

Before entering the exhibit, visitors are invited into the interactive experience by putting on booties made of this patchwork harlequin fabric. Upon entrance, a visitor's feet will blend into the rug that covers the floor — a geometric arrangement of colors and words to get people talking, words like: "secularisme," "recyclage" and "hybridization."

A circle of chairs draped in flat, cubist shapes of human bodies invite viewers to sit (yes, you can sit on the artwork) and discuss the ideas presented in the art around them.

"This is very participatory," Veneciano said. "The artist wants people to sit and to talk, so she has us in a circle, like a kind of democratic forum she's created. And here, she's giving us some topics to talk about."

As is the artist's unconventional presentation style, becoming part of the exhibit is how ORLAN attempts to have viewers begin to look deeper into what defines their own existence.

"People get accustomed to quickly walking through a gallery," Baker-Hansen said. "In order to look at this exhibit, you have to do something and become automatically engaged."

Regardless of one's interest in contemplating life's defining qualities, this exhibit wis a rare opportunity.

"She doesn't exhibit often in the United States," Baker-Hansen said. "It's a unique exhibit that won't be shown in this way again."

kelseylee@dailynebraskan.com