Can a cornucopia of fake flowers, shiny things, dolls, dolphins and unicorns escape being twee? The Lydia Venieri exhibition The Last Conflict: Retrospective: Sculpture, Video, and Photography is, as the title suggests, a mixed media installation that occupies the majority of Stux Gallery’s space that begs the question.
Her bubble sculptures, supported by tree trunks or suspended from the ceiling, depict hyperbolically natural flora and fauna. The materials mix the organic (moss, wood) and plastic. The miniature ecosystems seem like the baubles of fairies from a bad production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Authenticity is hardly the point, however.
The exhibition also featured satin digital color prints from the artist’s “Planet Exodus” series. In them, wide-eyed dolls pose like models.
Their large eyes reflect the manmade surroundings, and suggest a (fake?) innocence in the face of natural devastation. The worlds Venieri portrays in the dolls’ eyes, and in the video installation as well, suggests the world of man in conflict with the natural world.
That message comes differently from the mouths, so to speak, of the little plastic people that Venieri employs.
Rather like a Japanese Lolita, Venieri’s exhibition tweaks twee on the nose, and manages to seem coy about the darkness underlying her plastic arts.
Up through June 25th at Stux Gallery.
LOL! I absolutely loved these sweet miniature ecosystems – they were sorta subversive. I was hoping for some playdough dark demented specimens but alas, there were none…
No, no playdough. That’s something you would have to create I think…and then photograph them in with the installation 🙂
wow! i´ve seen so many materials already explored in sculpture but have never seen anything concerning bubbles! I´ve enjoyed this article. Nice to find passionate art bloggers like you
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