The Sheldon Student Advisory Board (SSAB), the student voice of the museum, comprises undergraduate students in various academic programs at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In addition to selecting a work for Sheldon’s permanent collection, the student volunteers are responsible for creating programs at the museum and providing outreach to their peers.
The acquisition project, which is now in its third year, provides SSAB members with meaningful engagement with Sheldon’s collection. After much research, the students chose the print seen here: Analia Saban’s DANKE MERCI THANK YOU GRACIAS ARIGATO Plastic Bag, (2016). The advisory board’s recommendations were approved enthusiastically by Wally Mason, Sheldon’s director and chief curator. In what follows, the students give insight to their selection.
Analia Saban DANKE MERCI THANK YOU GRACIAS ARIGATO Plastic Bag Mixografia print on handmade paper, 2016 28 1/2 × 20 × 1 1/2 inches Sheldon Art Association and Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2019–2020 Sheldon Student Advisory Board acquisition purchased with funds from the Pace Woods Foundation and from the Robert E. Schweser and Fern Beardsley Schweser Acquisition Fund, through the University of Nebraska Foundation, U-6893.2020
"What is it?"
"What can be considered art? What subjects? What materials? What contexts?"
"What associations do you have with plastic bags?"
"What kind of feelings does this evoke?"
"Why did we pick it?"
Even though our selection looks like a plastic bag, Saban’s print is made of paper and is three dimensional. A video explaining this process can be viewed here.
Words that come to mind when we view this work…
ACCESSIBLE
Capable of being entered or approached; easy of access; readily reached or got hold of.
—Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2020.
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ART
Art can be anything and everything. If we pay attention to the environment around us, we can notice artistic value everywhere.
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COMFORT
Plastic bags are always there, whether we use them or not. They are a safety-net we can count on.
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CONSUMERISM
A doctrine advocating a continual increase in the consumption of goods as a basis for a sound economy.
… or the emphasis on or preoccupation with the acquisition of consumer goods.
–Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2020.
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CONVENIENCE
The quality of being personally convenient; ease or absence of trouble in use or action; material advantage or absence of disadvantage; commodity, personal comfort; saving of trouble.
–Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2020.
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ENVIRONMENTALISM
Concern with the preservation of the natural environment, especially from damage caused by human influence; the politics or policies associated with this.
–Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2020.
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GLOBALIZATION
The action, process, or fact of making global; especially the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale, widely considered to be at the expense of national identity.
–Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2020.
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INCLUSION
The active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity—in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions. —American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and Office of Diversity and Inclusion, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
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LANGUAGE
The repetition of the phrase “thank you” makes plastic bags lose any sincerity or authenticity. Just as the bags can be thrown away, so can the text on them.
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RELATABILITY
We all use plastic bags. They are marketed to everyone and everyone experiences the same convenience around them.
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TRANSLATION
Here, we have one bag with multiple languages. Anyone who crosses this bag's path is getting the same message.
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
...genuinely, from SSAB
Sarah Al-Hilfy Leon
Nayely Aragon-Agraz
Molly Beck
Daniela Chavez
Julien Hoffman
Lauren Plumley
Grace Stephenson
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