"Asterisk"

This architectural installation by Sam Frésquez’ is titled "Asterisk."  It is a very small kitchen in the middle of this large gallery.  As you approach it, you realize that it is more than one kitchen.  When you get right up to the low railing you can see that there is another kitchen, which is smaller than the first and it is an exact copy.  Then you notice that there is another one beyond that one, and smaller yet!  Each kitchen is fitted out with the same appliances and lights, but those items are also smaller.

Ranging from life-size to miniature, the telescoping rooms unfold into a sequence of six miniaturized versions of the same room, prompting viewers to contemplate the compression and expansion of lived histories.  The title of the work, * , a typographic symbol that connects one text to another, underscores the work’s function as a portal, connecting one plane, one moment, to another.

And an extra added bonus is when you leave the front of the piece and look from behind at how the rooms were constructed.  This carpentry is absolutely fascinating, and a work of art by itself.  It was so much fun to walk from front to back, really close to the whole structure and see how it was built.  There is a secret - if you go to the smallest part, on the left hand end of the structure, there is a tiny window that lets you see backward, from the back of the smallest kitchen to the front.  This was such an interesting piece of work to study and to contemplate.