Continuing through February 16, 2019
The twenty-two blown glass fruits that make up the core of Liss LaFleur’s multi-media installation are the product of an artist residency at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. Additionally, the exhibition includes text pieces, photography and video. Her careful reading of Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” puts exaggeration, artifice and irony at the service of LGBT issues in an examination of the representation of queerness. These fragile glass sculptures contain rose-colored water that interacts with natural light to cast a solemn pink hue over the entire space.
All of the glass fruits are exaggerated in size, based on the scale of both the artist's and her mother’s bodies. In a delicate pair titled “Strawberry,” breasts form the reference. Apples become butt cheeks and a half pomegranate an abdomen, while a small slice is a forearm. Conflating female body parts and fruit lies at the core of LaFleur’s intention to critique how fruit was historically used within the discourse of the body to depict sexuality, crime and gender, as either feminine or queer. The masterful “Stem and Grapes” features a grape stem drawn from the artist’s spine, and several unattached grapes the size of her head. Simultaneously disconcerting and mesmerizing, the twisted life-size glass skeleton and grape skulls sparkle and shine as the glass and fluid interact with light, animating and amplifying LaFleur’s compelling achievement.
