Leslie Friedman at Space 1026: Tastier Opens July 12th

Image · Posted by Liza C. on June 28, 2013 · 1 Comment 

Candy-colored pop – in more ways than one – is what you can expect when walking into Tastier, Leslie Friedman’s installation that opens Friday, July 12th. Created specifically for Space 1026’s gallery, the second iteration of Tasty – her installation that debuted at Napoleon in February 2012 – is expanded and more intensely investigated. Friedman’s work serves as a bold and vibrant entrée into conversations on artificiality and the human experience.

Tastier, complete with the irony autogenously embedded in pop art, opens the dialogue on the abundance and mass appeal of sugar substitutes. Friedman’s extra-large Coke Zero cans and packets of artificial sweetener beg the questions: If substitutes continue to improve and become closer to the real thing, will the real thing become obsolete? Does this apply to other things?

Judging from the sexualized imagery, one might expect that Friedman is drawing other comparisons as well.  The allure of widely recognizable consumer packaging decadently retrofitted in fluorescents and pastels provides an exciting, at times pornographically metaphoric display.

It is here that Oscar Wilde’s anti-mimesis – that life imitates art – is so brazenly opposed among Friedman’s display of desire and disgust.  With its bold social commentary on the wide overuse of artificial sweeteners, the installation is not simply imitating life, but in fact practically mocking it.

Be sure to check out this super-sized exhibition of sweet at the opening, or anytime by appointment. Tastier runs through July 26^th.

To download a press release of Tastier, click tastier_press_release_2013_july_FINAL_2.

Tastier

an installation by Leslie Friedman

7.5.13 – 7.26.13

Space 1026