fin de siècle (2020)

The inside cover is backed with a maroon wallpaper pattern of horizontal bars. Attached to the cover is a box covered with a black-and-white photo of an experimental biplane. Inside this box is a tray that can be pulled out with a red ribbon. The tray is covered with a light blue fabric with a floral pattern. Collaged to the inside of the tray is a photo of actress and ice skater Sonia Henie. A set of four cards rest in the tray. These cards are collaged with illustrations showing the steps of an experiment using a bowl and a chalkboard. Above this box is an American outsider-artist painting of Hudson River area gentry gathering in a park. Mounted adjacent and to the right of the airplane box and the painting is a used test tube containing a solitary red feather. The frame of this piece is covered with a 1960s color illustration of men of the American West with their pickup trucks. The background of the framed section is a color photo of a 1950s-era car driving down a scenic highway with magenta-colored flowers in the foreground. Centered atop this photo is a functioning metal game spinner. Cut into this photo are six rectangular glassed-in windows revealing six different vivid color photos of styles of pancakes. Along the top of the background photo are four small game pieces: white plastic cutouts of a wishbone and a sheep, a knight chess piece, and a yellow tin railroad car. The inside bottom of the frame has three small objects: a used antique bottle of hair remover, a plastic figure of a woman juggler holding clubs in her upraised hands, and a rubber baby llama. The inside panels of the frame are Art Nouveau period interior gilded walls. The inside top of the frame is text from a pulp story depicting a Middle Eastern sheik’s courtyard.