A Muse

Erick Hufschmid’s series A Muse: A visit to the studio of Varujan Boghosian in the Center gallery, is a portfolio of 18 photographs, including an essay by the poet Charles Simic, and reflections by Kathy Hart, then Interim Director at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College. These photographs tell an intimate story of Boghosian’s studio. The seemingly random objects collected by “accident and luck,” as Hart notes, are allowed a moment to live through their inclusion in his work. In Hufschmid’s photographs we see a documentation of the studio as it was found in 2010, a scattered grouping of objects with as yet unrealized potential, but through his camera’s lens, we see personal ephemera and children’s toys alike—as a product, ripe for interpretation in their artful arrangements. Hart also notes, “they are battered, rusty, stained, weathered and peeling. One would not be surprised to encounter a scarf Isadora Duncan strangled herself with, tied to one of the wooden wheels. A combination of accident and luck may have brought them to his studio, but now their adventure really begins. They are about to have an exciting new life in one of his constructions or collages. To Hufschmid, “the visit to Varujan’s studio allowed [him] the delight in uncovering compositions within the juxtaposition of simple objects. The photographs attempt to gather inspirational seeds within [Boghosian's] collective harvest.”