‘Bling’ features over the top, flashy ceramic pieces accented by gold or jewels
Many years ago, when I lived in Dallas, a friend’s mother came to visit from out of town, and we took her shopping at Neiman-Marcus. At the jewelry counter, a perky Southern Methodist University coed guided the petite Mrs. Z toward tasteful and feminine rings, the kind with rows of small gems in delicate filigreed gold and ladylike solitaire stones in platinum princess settings. I could feel Mrs. Z — a woman whose attitude could be as brassy as her hair color — getting more and more irritated as she shook her head at every ring the girl proffered. Finally, she stabbed a finger toward the biggest ring in the case, an enormous topaz on a wide gold band that would overwhelm her small hand. “That’s what I like,” she told the sales girl emphatically, “the really gross ones!”
Mrs. Z had “bling.” Despite being a proper society matron in many ways, she loved the showy, the sparkly, the shocking. The online Merriam-Webster’s defines bling as “flashy jewelry worn especially as an indication of wealth; broadly: expensive and ostentatious possessions.” But bling isn’t just about jewelry; it’s about attitude. The dictionary says “bling” dates to 1999, and most of us probably associate it with hiphop artists’ and rappers’ extraordinary, over-the-top fashion and lifestyles, the bigger-is-always-better philosophy.
But they and even Mrs. Z were long predated by the King of Bling, Liberace. Nobody has ever done it better than the Vegas piano player and entertainer we baby boomers grew up watching on television. His 200-hundred-pound rhinestone costumes and gazillion-carat real and faux diamonds continue to set the bling standard.
There’s a bit of bling for everyone in Santa Fe Clay’s current group exhibit, along with some cultural commentary worth thinking about.
Benjamin Shulman’s “Celebrity” is a male ceramic figure covering with a black flockinglike material — a skin-tight little suit, actually — who wears giant faux diamond earrings and a rhinestone star over his genital area. But this is not just a parody of a hip-hop star; this is cultural criticism. Those who have lived in the South will immediately recognize the stance of the figure: it’s based on the “lawn jockey,” the yard ornament of a black boy that — despite its offensiveness to many people — remains a common sight in the South. (In fact, I saw one two weeks ago in an upscale Dallas neighborhood.) The persistence of imagery over critical thinking (and moral rectitude) in our culture cannot be overestimated, but through the reinterpretation of such imagery, we begin to understand not just these specific images but our failure in general to overcome biases long held in the collective unconscious. Bravo.
In a distinctly absurdist vein is Chris Antemann’s gilded and painted porcelain jewelry chest (with working drawers) flanked by two naked babes in 17thcentury up-dos and lots of jewelry. They eye each other suspiciously from their perches at either side of the chest. But it’s not quite a period piece. One is wearing nipple rings, the other an ankle bracelet. The piece is titled “Are You Jealous?”
The tongue-in-cheek in this exhibit is great fun. Garth Johnson’s “Art/Craft” asks the age-old question of one versus the other on two sides of a ewer that looks an awful lot like a salad dressing bottle. The words “art” and “craft” are spelled out on either side in rhinestone letters. The “art” side features an image of an argyle oven mitt (who could make this up?), while “craft” boasts a hand with palmistry lines on it. Bling is not about good taste, Johnson reminds us — it’s often marvelously ugly.
Steven Young Lee’s interpretation of a Chinese granary jar looks from a distance like a very expensive antique vase. But cavorting among the classic pine tree limbs are cereal-box characters including Cap’n Crunch, Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam. This piece isn’t exactly bling, but Lee, as director of the prestigious Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Mont., since 2006, has de facto bling.
Xavier Toubes’ “Exquisite Nomad,” a giant, loosely modeled human head, is a serious and thoughtful piece. But because it’s entirely covered in real gold luster, it is way bling. The nomad has holes for eyes, a slit for a mouth, and very crude ears and nose. His pinched, pulled and patchworked surface, dappled with light and shadow, suggests our common internal landscape of humanity — exquisitely and beautifully imperfect. This nomad has presence; you can almost hear him breathe.
My personal favorite among all the sparkly bling is Cynthia Giachetti’s mostly unglazed porcelain clusters, eight white pieces installed together on a wall. Perhaps inspired by Dale Chihuly’s extruded glass floral chandeliers, Giachetti clusters uncolored porcelain blooms on stems, upside-down and rightside-up, into odd hybrids creatures that resemble sea urchins or coral. They’re funny and sensual and hint at the transformative, with little glazed butterflies and scarab-like insects here and there.
I was disappointed that no one decided to interpret John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in bling drag. We could use a little bling right now, what with the war, global warming, and the natural disaster-of-the-week. Probably even the candidates. So don’t forget to vote. And wear your tiara to the polls.
Contact Hollis Walker at walker259@earthlink.net
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Bling,” group show of ceramics
WHEN: Through June 21
WHERE: Santa Fe Clay, 1615 Paseo de Peralta
CONTACT: 984-1122, www.santafeclay.com
