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My Arcadia

My Arcadia

Martha Glowacki

Cabinets of curiosities were designed to hold and display a variety of natural and manmade marvels. They arose in Europe in the sixteenth century and set the stage for today’s museums. My Arcadia is sculptor Martha Glowacki’s contemporary version of a cabinet of curiosities. Its contents—skulls, a cat carcass, and a death photo of twins, alongside images of bounty, harvest, and new growth—remark on the unceasing cycle of life and death, decay, and regeneration. References to plant control methods like pollarding and espaliering may indicate the futility of human desire to contain and control nature. My Arcadia is an interactive artwork; visitors to the museum are encouraged to open its drawers and discover their contents.
Artist
Martha Glowacki
(American, b. 1950)
Title
My Arcadia
Date
2000
Medium
Mixed media and wooden cabinet
Dimensions
79 x 62 x 34 in. Overall
Credit
Elvehjem Museum of Art General Endowment Fund purchase
Accession No.
2000.88
Classification
Sculpture
Geography
United States

Related

December 2000, sold by the artist, Martha Glowacki (Sauk City, WI) to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Bulletin/Biennial Report 1999-2001." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 2002. p. 98
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 17, No. 1, Fall 2000. p. 9
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Cabinets of Curiosities: Four Artists, Four Visions." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 2000. pp. 55-63, 90-93, 106
  • Lidtke, Thomas D. and Annemarie Sawkins. "A Creative Plate: The History of Wisconsin Art." Cedarburg, WI: Cedarburg Art Museum, 2021. p. 410, fig. 7.54

  • Faculty Exhibition 2020: Chazen Museum of Art, 2/1/2020–7/31/2020
  • Cabinets of Curiosities: Four Artists, Four Visions: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 10/7/2000–12/3/2000

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