By looking to interior spaces, Wisconsin artist Michelle Grabner explores concepts of unseen labor of domesticity. “There is no one story or one meaning to be gleaned from the bounty of visual design languages lining the walls of my washroom—just as there can be no single way of understanding the complexity of the artists and their environments housed in the building. All facets of everyday life have the potential to activate and host the imagination: to be curious about common places and to see familiar things differently, anew, and as extraordinary; this is the work of artists, and this is how we build our environments, our studios, our living spaces, our worlds.”

Grabner chose a combined investigation of the materials and the labor of artist-built environments through a study of familiar Midwestern domestic surfaces, textures, and objects. Tiled with familiar ginghams, plaids, and woven textures, the walls invite touch and are an interpretation of a crocheted granny square blanket. Through a contemporary Midwestern lens, Grabner celebrates the value of handicrafts and labor by memorializing domestic textiles and a life-size custodial cart in brass and vitreous china.