1.The Day That Cracked is mirrored acrylic spader webs taken from the webs created from a 1970s studio of spiders on drugs. Each web was created while a spider was under the influence of a different drug. Each web is placed in proximity of a spray painted stencil of different cracked windows creating a push- pull relationship of tangled ruptures. Installation size varies upon space.
2. The Underground Plot of the Pommes Frites is a large cut paper work spanning 15' x 12' high while suspended above a painted background of the fleur de lis. A long panoramic view of the royal gardens of Versailles and Marie Antoinette and King Louis the 16th act as two large bookends at either end of the potato field to frame the landscape. It illustrates the story of the initial introduction of the potato to France.
The potato was brought over from the New World and then presented as an exotic gift to King Louis the 16th and Marie Antoinette. Upon receiving it, Marie Antoinette began to fashion potato-plant flowers in her hair and King Louis displayed them in his lapel, soon all of the royal court followed suit. The potato plants were grown and guarded by the French Army in the gardens of Versailles. Eventually, intrigued peasants broke in, stole the plant, and soon populated France with them.
This story of control exerted by those in power is one that I am drawn to as it parallels today’s limited controlled accessibility to food sources offered to the public.
