Opposites attract

Upstairs at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum is a garden of sorts. It’s called the “Garden of Industry,” with new works by two local sculptors who handle very different materials.

On one side are the ceramic and porcelain creations of Cynthia Giachetti—delicate flowers and foliage blossoming out from oval-shaped canvases. On the other side are the heavy, imposing structures of Ben Diller that blend emblems of Americana and machinery.

It isn’t the first time this married couple has collaborated on an art show; they joined forces for the “Uniquely Louisiana” exhibit at LSU’s Museum of Art in 2012.

On a table in the exhibit, patrons are asked to describe their earliest memories of being out in nature as well as building things with their hands. The responses are surprisingly candid, with patrons recalling times spent working in a garden or building a soapbox car with their parents or grandparents.

Indeed, the sculptures—especially Diller’s with its pulley systems and hammered metal—tend to recall a period our elders talked about, and what he calls “relics of progress.”

Giachetti’s works seem to show nature’s ability to multiply and persevere in spite of that progress. The porcelain shapes of magnolias and lily pads are arranged as if they had all landed upside down on the canvas, their stems pointing outward.

These starkly different works almost don’t work together until you consider that the artists likely tackled their respective subjects in much the same way. Giachetti and Diller didn’t create something new—they molded their materials into surprising forms that offer a different view of the familiar and nostalgic.

The exhibit is on view until Jan. 12. lasm.org