Since childhood, sugar has tantalized our senses of sight, smell and taste, offering a delicious form of comfort. Usually just empty calories, in Sugarcraft the sweet treat flavors a light yet substantive exploration of creation and consumption, whipped up by curator Wynter Whiteside and a large, diverse selection of artists from around the globe.
As Whiteside explains, “This exhibit is designed to playfully break boundaries, and to foster a dramatic interaction between artist, audience and the works themselves.” Many of the participating artists represent the contemporary adoption of DIY practices as a response to mass production and consumption, as well as the fading line between contemporary fine art and fine craft. Using traditional or uncommon materials, including refined sugar, all encourage indulgence in eye candy and a playful conversation about the various aspects of taste. Casual viewers and art connoisseurs alike are invited to engage with both established and emerging artists.
Among the painters, Matt Neff collects wedding cakes into a pile of rosettes and bleeding colors and Isadora Stowe invokes a cake’s frosted layers as a personal symbol of subtle inter-familial divisions. The prolific Tilly Strauss adds ice cream with a visceral piece from “A Month of Sundaes,” a series that came to life in public view.
Sweetness in texture and sculptural form is laid out smorgasbord style, including a fur delicacy from Christine Marie Davis, James Jaxxa’s cupcake fake-outs in Styrofoam and glass and a plush crying cake from My Paper Crane. Another anthropomorphized pastry is made noisily cannibalistic in a video by Kathy Santiago’s Everlasting Cakes. Contributing works that are partly or wholly edible desserts, Whiteside and cake stylist Mark Seaman bring the sensual experience of
Sugarcraft full circle.
With The Candy Shoppe!, a miniature marketplace of items from exhibiting artists and DIY crafters featured by Columbus-based show sponsor Wholly Craft!, and a wide range of price points starting at seven dollars, the curator hopes to create an irresistible temptation in gallery visitors to take a taste of the exhibition to go. |
