"An Embarrassment of Riches" Exhibition
Dean Project
This event has ended.
The work in this exhibition addresses notions of fortune, overabundance, value, and authenticity. Inspired by our consumable culture, Berg and Myers create ambitious handmade works in a variety of media, including ceramic, wood, and fiberglass with a degree of finish so high that all evidence of the hand is erased, thereby linking the works to designer goods and products.
An embarrassment of riches is a commonplace trope used to describe too much of a good thing, and is most evident in the pieces and then some…, and An embarrassment of riches (billboard). and then some… features a four-foot-tall lemon wafer cookie with such an overabundance of filling that it drips with excess. As the drip from the filling falls away from the cookie, it turns to 23-karat gold. An embarrassment of riches (billboard) employs the most conventional and prominent means of advertising to announce the exhibition. The billboard, like all of its kind, speaks to the overabundance of objects and experiences that saturate our daily lives. Impossible to ignore, billboards litter the landscape, both tantalizing and overwhelming the viewer with a conspicuous profusion of opportunities.
The central piece in the exhibition, titled a thing of the past, is comprised of a large, modernist-looking walnut table upon which a stylized replica of an adolescent triceratops skull rests inverted. This piece simultaneously relies upon and subverts the conventions established in natural history museum displays in order to explore how we value the past, making it into an allegory for the present. Ten small souvenirs of this project made to look like the larger version further reinforce our culture's propensity for transforming all things into something consumable. The sale of these souvenirs describes how human desire causes things to disappear.
for all it’s worth is a playful take on how humankind values nature. Double-sided wooden calipers compare the height of a perfectly manicured bonsai tree to a stack of chopped wood, creating a contrast between a human ideal and natural beauty. Though they are made of the same materials—as are the wooden calipers that measure and compare the two forms of wood—the two items are valued in completely different ways.
Media
Schedule
from January 17, 2013 to February 15, 2013
Opening Reception on 2013-02-01 from 18:00 to 20:00