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Show the variety of ways in which a common object can be appreciated. The historian might suggest, as Tom Carter does in his essay, that the intent of the builder as he scored the stone walls was to emphasize the sharp contrast between the imposed regularity of his civilized craft and the irregularity of the natural world. A mason, looking at the same photographs, might make a judgmental response to the method and quality of the work. A tour guide from a local Daughters of the Utah Pioneers relic hall might marvel at the effort of faith demonstrated by pioneer forefathers as they built "the kingdom of God on earth." And a real-estate salesman would probably appraise the wall and house in terms of its desirability on the market. Yet, perhaps it is most important, as Ann Nelson remarks in her essay, to take into account the viewpoint of the people who live in the house, who use it and call it home! It becomes apparent that there is a myriad of perspectives that one might legitimately employ in evaluating this or any object. In few aspects of life do we assert our taste as much as in the realm of artistic expression. Theoretically we can understand that our opinions and values are based to a large extent on our cultural backgrounds; yet we often operate as though our tastes were born completely from our individuality. What we find when we study material folk art of the past, however, is that artistic expression tells us something not only about the artist's creativity and individuality but also about his relationship with tradition, the nature of his community, and the times during which his art was conceived. Therefore we should realize that taste, whether related to the appreciation or the creation of artistic expression, is to a great degree time- and culture-specific. It follows quite naturally that the more vigorously we uphold our personal taste, the more likely we are to define ourselves in terms of a time and a culture. Through the course of the Exhibition many visitors were confused and irritated by our inclusion of the cluster of plastic grapes (Fig. 4) and its classification as folk art. Often it is easier to appreciate the cultural worth of utilitarian objects than it is to understand why a decorative item, aesthetically judged by popular culture to be without merit, should be considered of equal cultural value. That the grapes are still found in some Mormon homes but have been discarded by those "sensitive" to trends in decor; that they are made of jet-age plastic resin; that individuality in design seems negligible; that the making of grapes in Relief Society (the Mormon women's charitable organization) is part of our recent, personal past-all contribute to our unwillingness to accept these spheres of forbidden fruit as folk art. But they are "folk" because they belong to a long line of Mormon women's craftwork and as such were used to decorate coffee tables throughout Mormondom. And they are "art" because xv |