Untitled (White); 1990; formica, plexiglass, housepaint, dry plaster, soap, infant formula; 78 x 86 x 16.  

“In Made, Make, Will Make; a group projection, curated by Mark Van Wagner at Prairie Avenue (October 19 – November 18, 1990) George Blaha, Adam Brooks, and Mike Hill presented site-specific installations in contexts of their larger bodies of works. Placed in the sitting rooms and library of this Near South Side mansion, the work engaged the architectural detail of this home, unraveling it or augmenting it to examine the effect of the architecture on the domestic.

Adam Brooks displays the fragility of art-making and language, in work that tests the structures that underly our apprehension of things. Within the substantial architecture of the mansion, Brooks presented what appeared to be solid minimalist sculpture consisting of four round columns on a rectilinear base, firmly supporting another slab. Very white, the piece seemed as safe and self-satisfied as any modernist object, but closer scrutiny revealed that the columns were variously filled with plaster dust, liquid housepaint, baby formula, and Ivory-soap bars. These references to the fabrication and maintenance of a domestic life threatened the pristine nature of the artwork, setting it off balance, threatening to spill its contents in a mess onto the floor.”

Excerpt from review of Made, Make, Will Make: A Group Projection, Kathryn Hixson, Arts magazine, January 1991 (Download article here)