Kitchen
Artist: Alison Elizabeth Taylor (American, born 1973)
Date: 2014
Dimensions:
H: 92 in. (233.7 cm); W: 116 in. (294.6 cm)
Medium: Wood veneer, oil, acrylic and shellac
Classification: Mixed Media
Credit Line: Purchased with funds given in memory of Larry Thompson by his children and grandchildren
Object number: 2014.22
Label Text:At first glance you may assume this work is paint on canvas or board. But look carefully—most of the image is composed of inlayed wood. Alison Taylor has become well-known for reinvigorating the Renaissance craft of marquetry, or intarsia wood inlay, which she combines with painting. Describing this synthesis, Taylor explains, “What interests me is a new type of surface created by the contrast of the textural qualities of the wood and the depth afforded by the paint. I found this tension was just what I needed to convey the otherworldly feeling I encountered in real life when I observed how nature adapts and mutates to accommodate encounters with the ever-encroaching urban environment.”
Kitchen is a meditation on the power of adaptation in the aftermath of disaster. The kitchen—once a comforting symbol of hearth and home—is here transformed into a scene of survival: an invasive tree limb, clothes drying on its branches, has collapsed through the ceiling. A useless refrigerator is now a habitat, breeding wild birds (for food?). A cooler becomes a temporary solution for keeping perishables, and the oven houses charcoal for cooking.
Kitchen is a meditation on the power of adaptation in the aftermath of disaster. The kitchen—once a comforting symbol of hearth and home—is here transformed into a scene of survival: an invasive tree limb, clothes drying on its branches, has collapsed through the ceiling. A useless refrigerator is now a habitat, breeding wild birds (for food?). A cooler becomes a temporary solution for keeping perishables, and the oven houses charcoal for cooking.
DescriptionA large scale work that utilizes Taylor’s signature combination of marquetry and paint to depict a contemporary but eerily post-apocalyptic scene
Not on view