Trophies – You are already a winner

From Hilarie M Sheets in the New York Times, a feature on Jean Shin’s elaborate trophy landscape at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, opening May 1. (Story here.)

Shin, who refashioned thousands of trophies, did not need to look far and wide for material. Trophies are everywhere.The cheap charm of pats on the back disguises the ruthless sorting of unregulated Capitalism.

Do-Ho Suh turned a mass of humanity into a trophy for an overlord.

Christian French turned his into a storefront shrine – buy your Buddhism here.

Sherry Markovitz recast a hunter’s prize as an emblem of the spiritual realm.

Nicola Vruwink made a trophy of herself. It’s herself she can’t get away from, with all the years of training in the art of feminine wiles. As Oscar Levant said years ago about Doris Day, “Nobody loves a fairy once she’s 40.”