âÄúJourney to the Surface of the Earth: Margaret Pezalla-Granlund and Max ScholletâÄù WHERE: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis WHEN: Nov. 14, 2008 âÄì Jan. 4, 2009 WhatâÄôs beautiful about a plastic bag? Wrinkles spider around the translucent plastic, growing like weeds from its base. Or what about a roll of masking tape? Unrolled and haphazardly stuck onto the wall of a museum, even something like tape somehow becomes surreal, as if itâÄôs from a different planet entirely. Thinking like this enough becomes like being on a constant acid trip, minus the crazy-radiant colors and the bad come-down. Along with causing a strange urge to listen to Pink Floyd, this type of thinking may also enhance consciousness of the ecosphere. âÄúJourney to the Surface of the Earth: Margaret Pezalla-Granlund and Max Schollet,âÄù a new exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts , offers a non-drug-requiring chance to admire the intricacies of doodles on paper plates and photographs of hanging shreds of paper. Woven deep into the MIA, wooden ladders carved to their frame and three-dimensional cubes and cones fashioned from printing paper intermingle in MIA’s MAEP gallery . Some works follow the progress of construction sites, and all seek to represent the way humans section off space for themselves in the world. The pieces are mainly just ordinary objects, placed in odd contexts or photographed in high detail under ecclesiastic lighting, displayed to imply a more significant meaning. The art is both fully recognizable and foreign, presenting the intricate textures of commodities. It hopes to remind us that objects we use each day exist in their own form, and not simply when they are needed for use. A ladder can be a piece of art when there isn’t anything to climb to, and that plastic bag will exist for years and years after you’ve tossed it out. By reminding consumers of the permanence of what they think of as trash, the artists hope to remove the illusion that such artifacts just magically disappear. âÄúJourney to the Surface of the EarthâÄù tackles the space we occupy and the wasteful consumption habits in modern society, but doesnâÄôt offer remedies for the path taken. Perhaps they could have added a recycling bin to the mix âĦ