These questions inform the 55th Carnegie International, opening May 3 and running through January 11, 2009, at the Carnegie Museum of Art. In his Curator’s web introduction, Douglas Fogle writes “Life on Mars is a collective self-portrait of humanity colliding with the economic and political events that define daily existence. Questions of our survival are humorously and poignantly brought to the fore in films, installations, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that search for the sublime in the banality of everyday life.”
Searching for and finding the sublime in everyday life is also the subject of one of my favorite novels, The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker. The Mezzanine will be the first subject of the Life on Mars Book Club, co-hosted by CLP’s First Floor – New & Featured Department and CMOA.
The Mezzanine describes a single escalator ride. The plot is simply an office worker returning to his desk after lunch. But Howie, not an ordinary office worker, is fascinated by the minutiae of everyday life. His analysis of the way shoe laces wear out, or his method of using only one ear plug while he sleeps, take the form of extensive footnotes – essays that elevate often overlooked, commonplace objects and events to poetic heights.
Life on Mars Book Club details are being finalized, but we do have the time, dates, and titles set. We’ll meet in the museum exhibition galleries on the following Thursdays, 6:30-7:45 PM.
We invite you to delve into six fascinating works of fiction that tackle the humor, the peril, and the irony of being human.
June 12 Nicholson Baker: The Mezzanine
July 10 Haruki Murakami: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Aug. 14 Daniel Quinn: Ishmael
Sept. 11 Antoine de Saint Exupéry: The Little Prince
Oct. 9 Vladimir Nabokov: Pale Fire
Nov. 13 Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
-Julie
