Leaving the Table
Solo exhibition Boxcopy, Brisbane
13 April – 4 May 2013
Catalogue written by Carody Culver
‘Leaving the Table’, Willing’s new solo exhibition at Boxcopy, finds new and playful ways of confronting the darker and more awkward moments of what and how we eat, and the ceremonial significance with which we imbue our acts of consumption. Dominating the walls are her ‘Self Catering’ collages, garish banquet images from old cookbooks that create a slightly off-kilter recreation of a 1970s dinner party table. Stitching together these disparate dishes from different pages, with their ever-so-slightly mismatched shapes, colours and perspectives, Willing instills in us a sense of unease; nonetheless, we can’t bring ourselves to tear our eyes away from these rather nauseating knits of prawn cocktail, trifle and elaborately garnished meat slices.
But there’s a whimsicality inherent in Willing’s work, despite its unerring ability to perturb us. Combining cake pillars and ceiling panels, ‘Ceiling White’ playfully mocks the tradition of the wedding cake as symbolic expression of beauty and romantic ritual. The elaborately arranged plasterboard layers of cake are a purely visual feast, a brilliant work of construction that tastes—literally—of plaster, just like the wedding cakes that can now be hired purely for show while guests enjoy slices of a less impressive culinary creation.
- Catalogue essay excerpt by Carody Culver
