Splendor in the plastic grass: MIA artists find the sacred in simple things

Video games and holiday kitsch combine in two new shows at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to create a stirring meditation on life, death and the hereafter.

The institute's Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program galleries, dedicated to work by Minnesota artists, will feature the work of Andy Messerschmidt and Mathew Zefeldt, two artists who, while aesthetically dissimilar, are thematically quite close.

Messerschmidt's "Delta Delta Delta Force" uses holiday detritus — Easter basket grass, plastic flowers, fake snow — as well as a host of homemade stickers to create intricate symmetrical murals and sculptures of ornate temples and altars.

"Messerschmidt is an image hoarder with a really wide purview of where he goes for source material, but it all becomes part of a really organized vision," said curator Christopher Atkins.

These makeshift sacred collages and structures invite viewers to contemplate what it is that makes an object holy. What differentiates the plastic flowers on an altar from a silver chalice? Is one more sincere than the other?

Christmas tree skirts hanging on the wall recall the skirts of whirling dervishes, while the center of the room is dominated by what appears to be a closed casket, adorned with Christmas gift wrap, plastic "gold" coins, ravens, lawn ornaments, and a crystal ball.

"If people look they'll find references to Buddhist principles, Christian theology, Hindu religions, it's all in there," said Atkins. "The crystal ball itself is an apt symbol for the entire show — looking into something from which to find meaning, or finding an object of meditation from which to appreciate order balance and clarity."

This use of "low" materials to inspire "high" or spiritual contemplation continues into the next room, which has been wallpapered floor to ceiling with Zefeldt's painted simulation of 16-bit video game graphics for his work, "Repetition, Simulation, Repetition."

Using imagery appropriated from early 1990s iterations of Super Mario, Doom and Wolfenstein, along with the MIA's own classical sculpture collection, Zefeldt draws connections between game play and incarnation, much like the recent film "Edge of Tomorrow."

A heads-up display, used to reflect health status in combat games, depicts an increasingly battered face.

The effect is jarring and claustrophobic in the best possible way, leaving viewers wishing they could escape by any of the multiple "doors" that would welcome you to the next level, if only you could master the game.

And what game is this, that we're playing? In the game of life, will we ultimately advance to the next level, or is this our one and only shot?

If you go

What: "Delta Delta Delta Force"/ "Repetition, Simulation, Repetition"
Where: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis
When: Running through Dec. 28, 2014