eview
CONSUMPTUOUS
Shelley Miller
Runs until April 16
Truck Gallery
Cake boys and girls will be happy to hear of Shelley Miller’s exhibition at Truck Gallery, entitled Consumptuous.
The familiar schoolyard jeer, "If you love it so much, why don’t you marry it?" might here be modified to "eat it."
Car-coveting gluttons could start salivating after a look at Miller’s work. And if you’ve ever dreamed of wrapping your lips around a Luis Vuitton carryall and being rewarded with a firm mouthful of chocolate ganache, approach this exhibition with a spirit of moderation to avoid the outbreak of a Bacchanalian feeding frenzy.
In these photographs, entire tables are laid out with cakes made and decorated to imitate everything from Porsches to baccarat wheels – the classic vices and contemporary manifestations of our more libertine material desires are all portrayed here. These still lifes, convincing in their cake-y verisimilitude, are arranged like Dutch paintings of the 16th and 17th century. Objects are suspended in the balance, half-eaten and askew, bringing to mind the mayhem inspired by more than one spread of veggies and dip at gallery openings gone by. At the eager hands of protein-starved art students, these precious buffets are made to suffer significant damage.
In Miller’s tableaux, no scrap of poker chip or playing card is safe from the similarly ravenous participants she has invited to pose in her photographs.
The wreckage left could indicate more than just reckless behaviour. Is the artist condemning such acts of consumption?
The art world, of course, is one of the primary markets in which vast sums are spent on objects which some define as being without function – as Sarah Adams concisely notes in the text published for the exhibition. Remember, this is a world where Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde shark recently went for a reported $12 million US. And Miller’s work, though shown in an artist-run centre rather than a commercial gallery, exists in the same world as Hirst’s. The gavel does not fall hard in this work, and it is good of Miller to spare us such dramatics. It is not a tone of judgment that resounds in these pieces, but rather one of mockery – even self-mockery.
Attendants to the opening were fortunate enough to sample a luxurious purse of a cake by the slice. Subsequent visitors will be happy that many purveyors of fine, sugary baked goods are within mere paces of the exit. |
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