Between Courses
Solo exhibition at Spiro Grace, Brisbane
October 2015
Catalogue written by Lisa Bryan-Brown
Willing’s infinite spirals of antipasto are simultaneously sumptuous and nauseating, devilled eggs and rolls of cold cuts fanned neatly for presentation. Collaging photographs found in dated cookbooks, Willing’s Banquet, Flesh and Cold Platter works teeter on the edge of taste in both senses of the word, their instantly recognisable but now entirely unfashionable style of photography transformed into mesmerising expanses of kitsch. Visually complex works, each one is surreal in its overwhelming excess, particularly when compared to the stark cleanliness of her Help series. Images of multiple sets of hands demonstrating bizarre collaborative recipe steps, the crisp whiteness of these works serves to amplify and dislocate the craftsmanship of food preparation. A wry comment on cooking as a social activity, the Help collages present a contradiction - many hands make light work, but too many cooks can spoil the broth.
- Catalogue essay excerpt, Lisa Bryan-Brown
