Jim Amidon — When I attended the opening of Wabash art professor Doug Calisch’s latest exhibition Friday night, I couldn’t help but think of the railroad tracks that run just a few feet outside his window at the end of the Fine Arts Center.
I’ve always had a thing for railroad tracks. I love the idea of walking rails just to see where they go; to get a sense of the mysteries that unfold at every turn.
I have fond memories of doing exactly that as a child. My brothers and our friends would pack up a day’s worth of snacks and start walking the tracks near my original hometown of Greenville, Michigan — and this was long before River Phoenix and his pals made it cool in the movie “Stand By Me.”
I remember how hard it was to balance my desire to look up at the unwinding rails and wide-open skies with my constant drive to look down to see what I might discover amid the rocks and shards of broken glass.
It was a game — like kids on a beach looking for the best shells — to see which one of us could find the first busted rail spike or flattened coin. Then there were times when we would find bent pieces of steel, bullet casings, or even bone fragments, and we’d make up stories about what they were… or might have been.
And that brings me back to Doug Calisch’s impressive exhibition of found-objects sculpture and eye-popping artistic photographs. Truth be told, Doug gave me a sneak peek of his latest work almost two weeks ago, and I really haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
Part of it stems from my own interests in photography and sculpture, but it’s also because I’ve know Doug for so long and I love the direction he’s taken with the work he’s completed over the last year.
I have no idea if Doug has ever been inspired by the railroad tracks outside his office window or any rail lines whatsoever. But it’s clear to me that Doug has the same interest — the same child-like curiosity and imagination — I had when I was a kid filling my knapsack with stuff found on our railroad hikes.
Doug is a brilliant artist. When I first met him, his sculptures were painstakingly hand-cut, hand-assembled masterpieces. He had complete control over literally thousands of pieces of wood (mostly) and metal.
I’m not an art critic at all, but it seems to me that in his latest sculptures, Doug is relinquishing much of his artistic control.
Make no mistake — the massive collections of found objects are still carefully and creatively pulled together in each and every piece. My sense, though, is that the viewer is in complete control over what each piece means and the stories they tell.
His sculptures contain twisted wrought iron, doorknobs, toys, and drawings of the human body. Lots of the elements in this exhibition were gathered along the US-Mexico border; they are the very real personal belongings immigrants were forced to leave behind when they crossed the desert into the United States.
Doug’s gift is gathering hundreds of seemingly unrelated objects that when brought together tell a story.
But this time, Doug’s not telling it.
He wants you, the viewer, to come to the gallery and get lost in the sculptures; he wants to stir memories and images, thoughts and feelings with his work. And he does it exceptionally well in this latest exhibition, which is aptly named “Lost and Found, Again.”
Calisch has augmented his striking sculptures with an equally impressive collection of photographs captured in his travels across this country and abroad. The photos of sweeping landscapes dotted with objects, signs, fences, and curiosities work well with the sculptures.
Looking at both types of art side-by-side allows the viewer to wonder — even imagine — if the objects in the sculptures are connected to the scenes depicted in the images.
When I left the gallery, I couldn’t help thinking about my hikes on the railroad tracks when I was a boy, back when I wanted to take in the magnificent unfolding landscape, but also hoped that I’d be the first one to find something along the tracks that nobody else had ever seen.
In his exhibition “Lost and Found, Again,” artist Doug Calisch allowed me to do both, which is the best gift an old friend could ever give.
Note: “Lost and Found, Again” will be on display in the galleries of the Wabash Fine Arts Center through October 5. The galleries are open during regular business hours, Monday through Friday.
