Round Museum

Ferris wheels have been gently carrying children, friends and lovers in circles since 1893. It’s hard not to feel hopeful as you rise up, lucky when you stop at the tippy-top, and nostalgic the instant you come back to earth.

09.22.17

When a structure is complete, it’s easy to forget the time, effort, and materials that built it. Bricks and mortar. Hammer and nails. This hidden rusty Round reminds you that the whole is only as great as the sum of its parts.

09.21.17

Short stack? Silver Dollar? Shaped like Mickey Mouse? Your pancake preference is a style built after years of trial and error. Do you like your pancakes with a slab of salted butter, covered in Aunt Jemima? Or do you have to have the “real stuff:” Grade A, golden color maple syrup from a tree lovingly named Gordon? Fruit on top? You’re not fooling anyone. Fruit doesn’t make pancakes better for you, especially under that mound of whipped cream.

09.20.17

Like a floating inflatable billboard, balloons act as announcements to passers-by. Color, shape, and size clue you in to the celebration. And sometimes, it's even spelled out with an invitation bobbing around in the breeze.

09.19.17

Marble is a soft stone, but flick one at the wrong angle and your thumb tells you otherwise. The swirly, flecked rock is widely used due to its beauty, but perhaps its most fun form clinks in the pockets of children.

09.18.17

"An apple a day..." they say. If one keeps the doctor away, what will three do? Keep the HMOs away?

09.17.17

Distinctions between good and evil do not exist, Taoists say, but are instead determined by individual perception. Not only do opposites attract, one cannot live without the other. As these warring codependents push and pull all aspects of existence into motion, the sharply divided colors of yin and yang blur. We live in a gray area between, swayed one way and another by impulse and intention.

09.16.17

When summer rolls in, it’s hard to imagine sacrificing your first pint of fresh fruit to can for winter. It’s easier to imagine weeks later, as you stand surrounded by buckets of berries. Come winter, you’ll be lauded as you gift jars of preserves, jellies, and jams to your family and friends. But we both know it was desperation, not planning, that brings the sweet taste of summer to the table on blistery winter mornings.

09.15.17

Now seen as quaint and peaceful, water wheels have been powering water-adjacent businesses since the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C.E. Millers, papermakers, and blacksmiths relied on the wheel to grind, hammer, and mash their materials. Water wheels now enjoy retirement after centuries of hard work and inspiring the next generation of water power: hydroelectric dams.

09.14.17

A clock is rarely just a clock. It’s a symbol for complexity, intricacy, aging, reliability. Long sleepless nights ignoring the glow that dimly lights your room. Reassuring tick-tick-ticks when you feel frozen in thought. Marking independence for an awakening nation.

Independence Hall
Philadelphia, PA

09.13.17