An exhibition juxtaposing long-unused industrial materials with new artworks opens Thursday in the welcome center of the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden.

“Patterns of Meaning,” by Pittsburgh artist Cory Bonnet, will be on display through Feb. 26 at the facility in Settlers Cabin Park in Oakdale.

Bonnet’s exhibition derived inspiration from a collection of 6,000 wood patterns, blueprints and other foundry tool-making artifacts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries reclaimed from the Youngstown (Ohio) Sheet & Tube’s Campbell and Brier Hill Works, which closed in the late 1970s.

Select pieces of those industrial materials are paired with oil paintings that Bonnet says “narrate the history and heritage of steel-making in the region.”

Earlier this year, Bonnet and Chip Barletto, owner of CB Gallery and Museum in New Castle, brought 10 box truckloads of the industrial artifacts to the artist’s studio in the nonprofit Energy Innovation Center in the Lower Hill District, and Bonnet went to work interpreting them.

“The whole idea I’m trying to convey is how difficult it was to build the whole infrastructure, and the effort it took that is so easily taken for granted today,” Bonnet said. “The collection has hand-drawn blueprints and diagrams on how to build these wooden foundry patterns. Then the foundry patterns were pressed in sand, and molten steel was poured in, and then those parts were machined to be put together to build everything in the United States and the world.”

A painting titled “Another Day at the Office” depicts two men pouring a ladle of flaming, molten steel.

“They have basically zero protective gear, other than goggles. One guy is holding his hand in front of his face to shield it from heat,” Bonnet said.

The exhibition emphasizes how much human effort went into the building process before the days of computers and automation, he explained.

“It’s easy to dismiss past generations as not being — and I don’t want to say intelligent — but maybe not as intellectual,” he said. “When you look at these drawings, I challenge just about anyone today to do the same thing without the aid of computers or calculators.”

Sense of pride

As reflected in the title, the exhibition also explores the way of life and entire world view that was lost as the steel industry waned.

“When the mills closed, it wasn’t just mill jobs lost, it was all the ancillary industries and all those jobs that were lost,” Bonnet said. “To me, the most important thing that was lost was this sense of meaning and pride that came from creating. Here are guys in the late 1800s, early 1900s, most likely were not college educated, maybe had high school diplomas, but they were in a position to wield forces that essentially were mini volcanoes.

“You leave work, and everything around you is there because of what you’ve created,” he said. “There was a sense of pride and ownership for where they lived and worked. When the mills closed, they lost all of that.”

A Pittsburgh-area native, Bonnet has a bachelor of fine arts degree in drawing and a minor in art history from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He has an interest in sustainable development and has long been committed to using salvaged, reclaimed or sustainable materials in his work.

He was named “2017 Preservationist of the Year” by the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh.

“Patterns of Meaning” also includes work by designer Angela Neira, master woodworker and artist Nate Lucas, glass artist Brian Engel and ceramicist A.J. Collins.

“These are artists I’ve worked with for years now,” Bonnet said. “As I was bringing in all this material and showing them the collection, they were inspired and had their own ideas of what to create.”

Engel and Collins have cast pieces in glass and ceramics using some of the reclaimed patterns.

Bonnet’s work fits well with the mission of the botanic garden, executive director Keith S. Kaiser said.

“The garden shares an industrial past of land uses including coal mining. We demonstrate through our gardens and woodlands how the land can heal and how human actions can make that happen,” he said. “Cory’s work tells a story of the region’s industrial past, as well as the region’s present and future through sustainable practices.”

An opening reception for the exhibit will begin at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the welcome center. Bonnet and the other collaborating artists will be present to talk about their work.

The happy hour-style event is suitable for 21 and older and will feature hors d’oeuvres and signature cocktails. Preregistration is required at 412-444-4464 or pittsburghbotanicgarden.org.

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