Institute Library Creates An ​“Oasis”

John Hatch’s Tea Time with Marcel Duchamp catches the eye fast, with its shiny surface and improbable, delightful shape. It takes a second to see how all the parts fit together — the tea kettle, the bell of a horn, the metal legs. It then invites speculation. What sound would it make if you boiled water in it? Some tea kettles whistle, or even sound like trains. Maybe this one plays a jazz solo. It’s possible to let the mind wander in this way because for all the relative seriousness of the execution, the piece itself is, above all, fun.

Tea Time with Marcel Duchamp piece is part of ​“Oasis,” a show of 43 artists’ work running at the Institute Library, 847 Chapel St, now through Sept. 16. The show is an apt reflection of the intentions of curators Maxim Schmidt and Martha Willette Lewis when they put out their call to artists to participate, inviting them to ​“gather and take a breath of fresh air. Come: refresh, restore, regale, rest, bask, bathe, relax, commune, inhale, meditate, and discover. Join the caravan, as we travel to a creative refuge and a summer escape right here in downtown New Haven.”

For inspiration, they described oases as ​“sacred places where every animal can drink in peace, and where weary travelers gather to tell stories and relax after their journey. It is the blooming in the desert, a garden of delights in a cement city. Scarce and special, they offer tranquility and refreshment. And of course, libraries themselves are oases.… Surprise and delight us with your interpretation of the meditative and restorative powers of art.”

For many of the artists in the show, an oasis — quite rightly — brings thoughts of nature, and contemplation of natural objects. In the context of the entire exhibition, a close nature study like those in this constellation of works on the wall of the gallery takes on new meaning. We’re invited, more than we might be otherwise, not only to appreciate the details rendered, but to imagine that maybe making the pieces brought the artists a certain calmness, that the process mattered as much as the product. 

But the sense of sly whimsy in Tea Time with Marcel Duchamp is never far behind, either. Several artists deploy collages to create pieces that delight at the same time they deliver what feel like knowing, complicating winks about the subjects they depict. Helen Kauder’s Arcadia conveys a clear sense of decadence and relaxation, even as the jolting tear in the bucolic image disrupts it just enough to not let the viewer get too comfortable. There’s a difference, perhaps, between the mindful relaxation of a true oasis and simply checking out completely.

A sense of outright play permeates Steph Kubish’s and others’ works in the show. There are collages that explode with ideas and canvases full of color, but Kubish’s fish, suspended from the ceiling in just such a way that they appear to have just swum through the wall, perhaps do the most to transport the viewer into another space. After all, if the fish are to be believed, than the entire room might be an aquarium.

D.G. Reid, meanwhile, makes the most of the fact that the gallery is in the Institute Library. The curators note that libraries are oases, and the Institute Library might be the best example of this in New Haven; the quiet inside it is sometimes almost unaccountable given the busy block of Chapel Street it’s located on, and its interior is perhaps uniquely transporting. Reid’s piece captures much of that feeling, along with the way a great book is a sanctuary, a world within a world. It and the other pieces in the show, taken together, remind us that oases are physical places, creating space for relaxation and reflection — but they only work if people are able to create the same space in their minds, for themselves. On a certain level, ​“Oasis” can be understood as helping us learn how.

“Oasis” runs at the Institute Library, 847 Chapel St., through Sept. 16. Visit the library’s website for hours and more information.