By Regina Haggo
The Hamilton Spectator
More articles by this columnist
(Apr 17, 2007)
Creating imperfect beauty is a piece of cake for Fiona Kinsella. The Hamilton artist's installation work is showcased in the Wilderness, a must-see exhibition at the transit gallery.
Beauty and the anticipation of bodily indulgence draw us in. A big table covered with a clean white cloth and loads of white cakes beckons.
Kinsella decorates her cakes with real icing, adding found objects and mass-produced ones. Bakers, too, put mass-produced items -- figurines of the bride and groom, for instance -- on cakes.
But something is amiss here.
There are no chairs for us at the table. Moreover, the cakes are enclosed in acrylic boxes, so the goodies are not for eating.
One of the boxes, (cake) twins (Cosmas and Damian), contains two rectangular cakes decorated with fondant icing and icing-sugar flowers.
Beautiful, yes, but some strands of dark hair cling to the cakes, the kind of imperfection that would drive Martha Stewart mad.
A small mass-produced doll, with hands crossed at the waist, lies atop each cake. The pair of identical dolls might stand for Cosmas and Damian, two early Christian martyrs.
Their poses are reminiscent of medieval funerary monuments where the sculptured image of the deceased lies, hands crossed, on top of the tomb or coffin. Are cake and coffin one?
Like all the cakes on the table, these two are placed on a bed of dark red fabric and human hair. The combination of white icing, red fabric and dark hair appeals to our senses but sparks a shudder of horror.
Kinsella further blurs the boundary between beauty and horror by placing animal and human body parts such as teeth, bones and skulls in the icing. We don't really notice them until we get close.
The same thing happens with the framed wall pieces, which suggest samples of cake decorations.
In (rolled fondant) nimbus (vision: fever), Kinsella lures us in with an ordered composition. A circle, outlined with a string of pearls, dominates the top. This traditional symbol of eternity contains wings, ancient symbols of the soul.
The circle also encloses three teeth. More teeth and some yellowed dentures appear below the circle. Teeth and dentures evoke thoughts of eating, which is appropriate for a cake. But do we want to think about dentures when eating sugar?
Like all artists, Kinsella lists her materials on the label for each work of art. But her materials are far-reaching since they include tears, melancholy and leprosy. These must be read; in fact, Kinsella considers them part of her titles.
Some squeamish viewers might find Kinsella's work unsettling. But I see her creations as a celebration of Baroque art. This style flourished in the 17th century and advocated the love of imperfection brought about by juxtaposing beauty with repulsion.
Regina Haggo is teaching Anonymous and her Contemporaries, a nine-week course about the history of women artists, starting April 23 at the Dundas Valley School of Art. You can sign up for Monday or Friday afternoons. To register, call the DVSA at 905-628-6357.
