Emptying and Filling
Location: East Wing women’s washroom 
Details, Emptying and Filling by Merrill Mason.
The entrance of Emptying and Filling is flanked by vignettes
of cast–iron objects set into marble–lined niches. Mason collected
these perfume bottles, lace–edged and embroidered linens, gloves,
lipsticks, hand mirrors, and hair combs and re–created them in iron,
replacing the tactile qualities of these intimate items with an
unyielding permanence appropriate for their public placement. The
interior of the washroom furthers the concept of a woman’s private room
for dressing, contemplation, and ritualized preparation with additional
iron still lifes and photographs of a woman seated at a vanity holding
Mason’s sculptures. The tiled walls are embossed with historic French,
English, and American monograms, both an abstraction of identity and
symbols of propriety. Mason created these tiles at the Kohler Co.
Pottery as well as lavatories and toilet bowls that contain text
referring to the flow of water: “emptying and filling” and “swirling,
swirling, around and around and down.” Mason’s room quietly
contemplates the boundaries between public and private through personal
objects and procedures that prepare one for public presentation. Artist(s)Related ProgramsFunding/SponsorArts/Industry is made possible by Kohler Co. Terms Of Use |