In a recent show in Grinnell College’s Edith Renfrow Smith `37 Gallery, a ceramic mask was stolen from Gwyn Redding’s `25 solo show Cirque de Corp. After leaving breakfast on March 31, Redding noticed that the mask was missing from the Smith Gallery, which is located right outside of the dining hall in the Joe Rosenfield `25 Center (JRC). A week after the mask went missing, it was left on the information desk of the JRC on April 7.
“I was here for dinner on Sunday, March 30, and when I left around 5:30 or 6 p.m. … I adjusted something on the mask. I put it back on the wall. Everything was good to go, I left,” Redding said. “So, March 31, 9 a.m., I come in and it’s just not there.”
There was no evidence that the mask had fallen from the wall, and Redding confirmed with Facilities Management that, in the case that the mask had fallen, no worker had gone into the gallery to clean it up. Redding, like all students who have shows in the Smith Gallery, has the key to the space for the duration of the show, and has not locked the doors at any point.
“So the only two scenarios left are it fell and broke because somebody was messing with it somehow and did something on accident. I still don’t think that’s likely, because, again, no evidence on the floor. So then that leaves the only option of somebody literally just picking it up and taking off the wall,” Redding said.
Redding contacted Campus Safety about the incident, who confirmed that there are no cameras in or facing the Smith Gallery.
The mask is a component of a work of art called Expose, a wearable piece that also includes a hat, a collar like that a clown would wear, and other accessories. Redding planned to submit Expose to BAX, the Bachelor of Art Exhibition that presents work from third- and fourth-year students, and had to entirely remake the mask after its disappearance.
Redding said they had received an email the morning of April 7 saying that Student Affairs had the mask. Nancy Guinane, Program Coordinator in the Division of Students Affairs, found the mask on the information desk, brought it upstairs, and informed Redding of its discovery.
