Create, connect and explore at Columbus Museum of Art’s Wonder Room

Frances Denman
Thu, 19 Jan 2023 01:45:56 +0000
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CMA’s Wonder Room installations featuring Dana Lynn Harper’s “Cloud Buddies”. Courtesy of Katie Dike.

The Columbus Museum of Art’s fourth version of its Wonder Room is an ongoing abstract art exhibition that stimulates social, ecological and creative connections in new ways.

Located at 480 E. Broad St. and open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extended hours on Thursdays until 9 p.m., the Wonder Room is an opportunity for visitors of all ages to engage with family, friends and other art-loving guests for no additional cost, according to its website. The Wonder Room’s current interactive installation includes themes of nature, exploration and imagination, Manager of Interpretation and Engagement Hannah Mason-Macklin said.

“The driving force behind the Wonder Room is, of course, wonder. How wonder and awe can spark creativity,” Mason-Macklin said.

Mason-Macklin said the exploration and expansion of one’s perspectives can achieve creativity.

“It can be fostered through play and through experimentation and we felt like the Wonder Room is such an important space to replicate these scenarios, where visitors and staff can tap into these creative skills,” Mason-Macklin said.

Artist and Wonder Room contributor Dana Lynn Harper adds to the Wonder Room’s interactive and otherworldly aesthetic with her employment of installations that allow the body to fit inside the structure.

Harper said her work is inspired by her childhood and the imagination that stems from childlike curiosity. She said a lack of a sense of belonging throughout her childhood and into her adulthood now drives her creative process.

“There’s this seeking to create a new space in which everyone can find a sense of belonging and where maybe I’m trying to create a new world so that I can feel like I belong a little bit more,” Harper said.

Harper manipulates materials like flagging tape, acrylic sheets and other elements that become unrecognizable within her finished pieces.

“I like to make spaces that create a sense of wonder and joy for the viewer, to kind of take them out of their everyday experiences and to give them something new,” Harper said.

Unconventional skills, such as these, are appreciated and used by Mason-Macklin and the Wonder Room team.

Mason-Macklin said an extended label allows the Wonder Room to delve into topics surrounding animal endangerment and habitats as well as nature and our ecosystem, all of which tie into themes of sharing space.

“The permanent collection works of art in this space — they fall within a few different categories,” Mason-Macklin said. “Most of them are placed in there to help contribute to this narrative of oasis, exploration of new spaces, imaginative worlds, close-looking and curiosity as well as shelter and thinking about our environment, how we participate in that.”

Naturalistic aspects incorporated into the space create a relaxing atmosphere, Mason-Macklin said. A sound installation — complete with singing birds, trickling waterfalls and other calming noises — was designed by Wonder Room artists to represent the passing of a peaceful day in nature.

Many of Harper’s pieces displayed in the Wonder Room involve natural elements. Harper describes one of her new works, “Rainwall,” as an installation of acrylic raindrops and handmade rainbow vinyl. Harper also designed and crafted “Cloud Buddies,” bulbous forms with legs attached to animalistic polka-dot figures. “Cloud Buddies” are big enough for enthusiastic children to sit on and climb.

Throughout the exhibition, “connectors” help produce relationships between visitors and the artwork, Mason-Macklin said. These consist of activities within the installations, such as free-form fort building, in which visitors have complete access to the Wonder Room space to build installations from magnetic cushions, silk blankets and connecting rods.

“The idea, like I mentioned before, is to think about what a safe shelter means to you, but then we also have limited materials, and it’s a shared space, so you’re going to have to work with other people to create something,” Mason-Macklin said. “And that has produced some really interesting forts but also just really interesting dynamics that I’ve seen from visitors playing with each other when they’re from different social groups.”

Art in the Wonder Room is displayed in unconventional ways, and Mason-Macklin said while some art hangs traditionally, most exhibits incorporate elements — such as waterfalls or perches. Visitors can even touch certain displays, she said.

“We have a work of art, it’s depicting an otter, and we’re encouraging visitors to gently touch — to engage — with this animal essentially, and asking them ‘How else do they show friendship to animals around them?’” Mason-Macklin said.

Those who are seeking an unexpected, social and memory-making art experience and who appreciate different ways of interpreting art will enjoy the Wonder Room and the rarities it has to offer, Mason-Macklin said.

Harper said the Wonder Room team encourages artists to reach their full potential in creating — and sharing — abstract art.

“They were interested in not just making the project come to life but supporting the artist that they’re bringing in to make that possible and allowing the artist’s work to really sing and to really exist in the way that it’s supposed to exist,” Harper said.