mmm…. tasty!

This week I had the pleasure of seeing Alexa Mietz’s exhibition “TASTY” at the University of Alberta’s FAB Gallery.

Drawing inspiration from an eclectic array of sources including the rich foliage patterns of William Morris, the enigmatic shadow boxes of Joseph Cornell, and the decorative wall niches she encountered while visiting the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, Alexa creates visual experiences that elicit wonder. It also helps that the works contain a healthy amount of glitter, rhinestones and iridescent ceramic figurines (craft materials to fall in love with). Through her inclusion of kitsch, found objects and fingernails, this current body of work is at once magnetic and abject, while raising questions about class and taste. (The photos of these works simply don’t do them justice. They shimmer and are far more intricate in person…)

Easy Breezy, 2011

Back up a second….fingernails? Take a closer look at Easy Breezy…

Initially used a decorative feature in her work, Alexa has been incorporating fake nails since 2006. Her application has now expanded to include elements like the plumage of birds and aquatic features in her constructed aquariums. With the birds, the nails are layered upon the existing wings and tails of ceramic figurines to simulate the shape and texture of feathers. Having had the privilege of speaking with Alexa about her work, she revealed to me that she first began buying the nails at dollar stores in California, where she was living at the time. Interestingly, since moving to Canada she’s had to order them in wholesale, since the nails available at Canadian dollar stores are not as rounded on the tips and are in fact too square to be used as feathers.

Both the figurines, and the nails that adorn them, are selected in part because they are cheap and accessible. Thrift, dollar, and craft stores are treasure troves for Alexa. Like the figurines and nails, the poster paint and plastic flowers that also decorate the inside of her shadow boxes are deliberately affordable, craft grade materials. They are readily available to any crafter or hobbyist, and that’s the point.

Beyond mere accessibility, “crafting” has historically been seen as a feminine endeavour, as opposed to say the serious and masculine art of painting. Many of the materials that have been categorically designated for making crafts are typically targeted at housewives, women who purportedly watch Martha Stewart on HGTV and have the time to make seasonal crafts with which to decorate their homes. It is no coincidence that major craft stores, like Michaels in Canada, carry lines of craft supplies endorsed by female daytime TV personalities.

“It’s a good thing”

In addition, the objects Alexa collects from second hand stores, once treasured ornaments in working-class homes, could collectively be called kitsch. Kitsch refers to objects or artworks that superficially imitate the appearances of something else and that are created by mass production for popular appeal. Home decor items like free-standing or wall-mount figurines of birds, cats and fish, as well as excessively ornamental shelves, glass rose bowls and potpourri dishes filled with fake flowers have all made appearances in Alexa’s work. Though not new in the post WWII period, there is a proliferation of mass produced goods to meet the demands and disposable income of the rising middle and working classes. She connects these objects to the home of her grandparents, working-class people who believed that “more is better” when it came to decorating their home.

Pink, Silver and Gold all Over, 2011

This “more is better” philosophy appears to have also been a guiding principle for the designers of the richly embellished and patterned Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The Harem, or private quarters of the royal family, was among the most luxurious spaces in the palace. Decorative tiles cover the walls, intricately carved windows and entry ways illuminate the space, and curvilinear niches are cut into the walls. Having visited Istanbul last year, the cut-out shape and the decorative background in the recessive space of Alexa’s own boxes are informed by the wall niches she saw in the Harem at Topkapi Palace.

Playfully re-envisioning what those now empty niches once contained, the home decor and craft elements like the glitter, silk flowers and fake nails that find their way into Alexa’s work coalesce in mesmerizing altars of nostalgia and femininity. Despite having undergone transformations, the objects in these works will still be recognizable to most people who view the exhibition and will likely remind them of the homes of their own mothers or grandmothers. Yet the work isn’t restricted in the kinds associations it conjures. The friend I saw the exhibition with found that Pink, Silver and Gold all Over fondly reminded him of the roadside shrines he’d seen while visiting family Mexico.

A is for Jeff, 2011

Alexa isn’t pessimistic about the relationship to women and craft. She wants to reveal what she sees as the beauty in the objects she uses and to celebrate the different kinds of roles women play. In doing so, this exhibition seeks to challenge “craft” as a pejorative term to one with increasingly positive associations.

The work in TASTY is incredibly multivalent and I strongly encourage you to see the exhibition before it ends. If you’re not sure you’re buying it, you can always window shop first - just look for the glow from the neon “tasty” sign in the window….

This exhibition will be on until Dec 3rd, 2011

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