Marilyn Levine (1935-2005) was a chemist and ceramicist known for working in the style of “Trompe-l’oeil.” She created optical illusions to fool the eye, manipulating clay to have the appearance of leather textures. On Levine’s archived website there is a page titled Quest, seeking to locate works from her collection that have an unknown whereabouts. Some pieces have been found with the descriptions updated, while others remain lost with no confirmation of their existence. At the bottom of Quest the “Small Drawstring Bag,” is catalogued stating it was once consigned to the Galeria Barbara Silverberg in 1988. Within the Gardiner Museum collection sits the “Small Drawstring Bag,” with the credit line listed as ‘Gift of Barbara and Philip Silverberg.’ 


The artwork titled “Receptacle” questions the ownership of objects, comparing the photographs documented by Levine and the Gardiner with a clay tablet that interprets the lifecycle of a Small Drawstring Bag. With attempts to reach out to the donors and no response, it is still unconfirmed if these are the same pieces. Transferring the rights to audiences on the web, interpretations between the resembling images can build alternate stories for the missing object. Perhaps speculation may reveal intimacies of the inanimate vessel, solving the quest of the Small Drawstring Bag.