Art

The other day, I was walking downtown when I noticed a fancy couch in a window with a big, white, spray-painted engine sitting on it. I pondered it. I was with my friend, Leah, and she pondered it too.

Engine on a couch. Couch engine. Fancy engine. Fancy porcelain couch engine. English engine. Reclining fancy porcelain English couch engine. Couch-gine. Eng-ouch. Nope.

We noticed there was a little sign on the glass which had, presumably, the name of the person who'd painted the engine and put it on the fancy couch, and also the name of the exhibit as a whole: Three Deuces.

Three Deuces.

I have no idea. The whole thing reminded me, a little, and on a way smaller scale, of the time I'd followed a group of hippies into a back alley and found a large woman in a bikini lying on an inflatable raft, covered in lettuce. 

However, there was also a web address printed on the glass, so I looked it up when I got home and found that it was part of an art exhibit spread out all over Regina's downtown*. There was a map on the website which showed where all of the showcases were (there were nine of them). So, kind of like an art treasure hunt? I wondered if, with some context, the fancy white couch engine might make sense. So I made Barclay come with me and find the other eight exhibits so as to clear this whole thing up.

I don't really know what to tell you: I still am not sure about the reclining porcelain couch engine, and now I have even more questions about a thing covered in feathers and also a floating television that seemed like something out of the Twilight Zone, but I love that people do stuff like this. I love that, even though I will readily admit that I didn't "get" most of the pieces in this exhibit, I could still really enjoy it for what it was - people being creative and sharing their creativity with other people in a different-than-usual way. I love that an engine on a couch or leaves stapled to a chair has some deep, hidden meaning to somebody out there. 

Art, you guys. Get into it.

*From the website: "Pop Up Downtown is a public art installation series, wherein underused urban spaces become showcases for compelling artworks from early June to late August."