What’s in your junk drawer? New MIA exhibit wants to know
Miami artist Kerry Phillips invites viewers to participate in A Place for Everything
If staying safer at home has you cleaning out your junk drawers, you may find some inspiration in an unlikely place – a new art exhibit at Miami International Airport. A Place for Everything by Miami artist Kerry Phillips, on display near Gate D29 through September, continues the artist’s fascination with accidental collections by once again unpacking her parents’ junk drawer – and she’s inviting viewers to join her in the search for fond memories.
Phillips creates sculptures and installations using materials available in a given place at a given time – ranging from things found to collected experiences and retold stories. One of her recent projects, My parents’ junk drawer, illustrates her attraction to seemingly meaningless objects that are nonetheless charged with fond memories and candid representations of a specific moment in time. With A Place for Everything, Phillips once again unpacks My parents’ junk drawer, but this time features a second, mirrored copy that reconstructs and memorializes each banal object from the original drawer.
Going through her parents’ junk drawer that first time after many years made her curious about the migratory patterns of the items within and how, out of necessity, some things float to the top while others remain buried far beneath. To help in further research, she invites viewers to document and submit their junk drawers to add to her growing collection. For details on how to participate, visit www.kerryphillipsart.com/junkdrawer.
I invite others to share their things, collect all of a particular kind of thing from my studio, or gather together the engaging things that others have cast aside. In this process, my work honors the memory that the object holds—of those who have touched the object, loved it, passed it down, left it behind, used it, and eventually discarded it—and opens the door for new memories to be formed.
We are extremely proud to host A Place for Everything, as the latest work in our diverse collection of rotating exhibitions by South Florida artists. Kerry Phillips has a taken a whimsical and engaging approach to discarded and collected items. We hope our passengers enjoy her unique vision, and that they join in the fun of discovering ‘treasures’ buried right inside their homes.
Phillips has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions including projects with Orlando Art Museum, Locust Projects, the Miami Art Museum (now Pérez Art Museum Miami), Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, the Girls’ Club Collection and Bridge Red Studios Project Space, among others. She has received other grants for her art making from public and private organizations as well as residencies and shows in Ohio, Vermont, New York, North Carolina, Berlin, Krakow and France. Phillips lives and works in Miami, Florida.
To request materials in accessible format, Sign Language Interpreters, CART services and/or any accommodation to participate in any Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) public meetings and events please email the ADA Office at ADAcoordinator@miami-airport.com or call the office in 305-876-7747 five days in advance to initiate your request. Persons who are deaf or hard of hearing may also call 711 (Florida Relay Service).