The Mobile Museum of American Artifacts (2014-2018) is a participatory, evolving installation—an ever-changing picture of American life cast from the objects and stories contributed by those who encounter the museum along its journey. MMoAA looks at the everyday, the local—the lives we live and the places we inhabit. It sees the present tense on its way to becoming a story, a thing regarded, the first rough draft of memory.
Created by Laurelin Kruse in 2014, the MMoAA has since been to around 20 towns and cities throughout the country.
All 100+ objects in the collection were kindly donated by participants who shared their stories through a written questionnaire and oral interview. Laurelin writes an interpretive text for each object based on this information.
This process asks: how does narrative impose categories on stories? can stories refuse these categories? what happens when stories travel? when a personal story becomes an allegory? is it possible to feel into each other's lives through the intimate physicality of objects? (many of these questions are inspired by Amy Shuman's book Other People's Stories, among many others.)
