Treasures from our Collections | Curatorial’s Pick from Jennifer Laurent

You like to discover the works in our collections… and we’re happy to indulge you! While we wait to welcome you back to the Museum, our curators want to share with you their favourites from our collections.

Here’s the pick from Jennifer Laurent, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts.

“Spanish-born designer Nacho Carbonell infuses his work with whimsical fictional elements that appeal to our imagination and inner senses, at once transporting us far from the realm of the everyday and encouraging us to forge a deeper connection with our inner selves. I particularly love this burnished bronze zoomorphic sculpture – a unique work from his series Time is a Treasure. At first glance, it evokes a fantastical pot-bellied creature standing on stilt-like legs, but upon closer inspection we notice it is brought to life by a working clock hidden within its core. Beckoning us to see beyond the superficial, this thoughtful work gives the time only to those who take the trouble to look closer. As such, it incites us to turn our gaze inward and reconnect with our own internal ticking clock.”

Nacho Carbonell, Time is a Treasure VIII, from the series Time is a Treasure, 2013. MMFA, purchase, Suzanne Caouette Bequest. Photo MMFA, Christine Guest