Spanning interiors, wrapping trees and adorning facades, these
big bright red doilies are somehow both conventional and
ominous, somewhere between knit holiday sweaters and huge
spider webs.
Created by Ashley V
Blalock, this Keeping Up Appearances series
was started over a half-decade ago and has made its way into
various public spaces and museum galleries. They can
really tie a room together, so to speak
The series is all about context and intentionally both
“anachronistic and antagonistic,” explains the artist.
“Although non-threatening in a domestic setting, in the gallery
and at this scale, the forms overtake the viewer and loom
menacingly. The doilies represent a certain desire to keep up
the appearance of gentility expressed through the arrangement
of objects in the domestic setting.”
She prefers “crochet, where every stitch is evidence of work by
hand. Through her work, she explores themes of discomfort and
the coping mechanisms used to provide solace from the stress
and trauma of modern life.”
“Inherent is a compulsion to arrange and place and decorate in
order to control or influence a perceived outward appearance.
The red color gives away the futility of such an act and hints
at the unease that exists behind every well-decorated home and
lurks below the surface of an obsessive need to control and
arrange.”
