"White Gold"--printing butter cream frosting on sugar cookies
THE NEW RESEARCH:
My artistic practice primarily evaluates our individual relationships with objects, often specifically with fine porcelain tableware. I would like to extend this evaluation to consider the larger context of the dining room, the table, the porcelain itself, and the food that it might hold.
In my new research, I will explore the conceptual and aesthetic relationships between fine china/porcelain and sugar and high-end sweets. Both sugar and porcelain have both been referred to as ‘white gold’ in their history and have exemplified extreme luxury and indulgence. I will create multi-media art performances and installations that will begin to elaborate on ‘white gold’. The below quote exemplifies the decadence that I am interested in examining:
“In 1566, when Maria de Aviz married Alessandro Farnese, the Duke of Parma, the
sugar platters at their wedding feast held a stunning array of sweets that guests devoured in sugar dishes and glasses, cutting larger bonbons with sugar knives and forks, mopping up syrupy ones with sugar bread.” Sugar: A Bittersweet History, Elizabeth Abbot
The first volume of this research was performed at the recent Mid America Print Council Conference in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in November 2012. This performance was an aesthetic comparison between the whites of paper, clothe, cookies, and icing. I screen printed white butter cream frosting on golden sugar cookies while dressed in a white-on-white Victorian-style gown. I then gave the cookies to the audience on screen-printed cards lasercut to the shape of scalloped dessert plates while discussing the “White Gold” research with them.
"White Gold" performance, 2012
Inheritance
"Inheritance: Favorites", 20 screen print and graphite drawings, 2012
This series indulges in multi-color screen print to depict ornate picture frames that contain hand drawn images of individual’s favorite cups. The series includes 20 print/drawings hung salon style.
"Inheritance: Favorites (David)", screen print and graphite drawing, 12" x 18", 2012
"Inheritance: Favorites (Bill)", screen print and graphite drawing, 28" x 22", 2012
The “Music for Teacups” series is a set of compositions in image and sound that recombine captured footage of falling and breaking teacups. This work is part of a larger body of work exploring issues of class, etiquette, and family upbringing using a confined yet complex language. One of the most important aspects of the work is that the sounds you are hearing are a direct representation of what you are seeing. In other words, we have captured both the image and sound of the moment a teacup or bell opens up, bounces on the ground or violently shatters and subsequently found the musicality hidden within these transformative events.
“Music for Teacups” is a collaborative production between Melissa Haviland and David Colagiovanni
Haviland and Colagiovanni recently released an associated 25-foot artists’ book and 7-inch EP featuring sounds from “Music for Teacups” with Small Craft Advisory Press apart of the Facility of Arts Research at Florida State University.
"Music for Teacups" artists' book & 7" vinyl record
"Music for Teacups" artists' book & 7" vinyl record
A Host of Options
"A Host of Options (teacup wallpaper)", 1,250 screen prints on cut paper and corsage pins, dimensions varies, 2012
“A Host of Options (teacup wallpaper)” is the first is a series of pieces that will use small lasercut teacup shapes to create a fluttering wallpaper in the space. Installed with mother-of-pearl headed corsage pins, the teacups dangle by the handle–shifting as the viewer walks through the space.
“A Host of Options (teacup wallpaper)” is a display of 1,250 of these shapes that have also been screen printed with 56 different Haviland brand china patterns. Each individual print is then ‘titled’ with a different pattern name from the Haviland corporation production history. The piece shows the true multiplicity available in porcelain production and through the democratic medium of printmaking.
"A Host of Options (teacup wallpaper)" detail
“A Host of Options (Music for Teacups wallpaper)” can grow to 5,000 teacups. It emphasizes the patterns that begin to develop on the walls and in the video series that it is inspired by \”Music for Teacups\”
"A Host of Options (Music for Teacups wallpaper)"
"A Host of Options (Music for Teacups wallpaper)" -- detail
“A Host of Options (Luster)” includes 1,200 teacups. It is the most recent version in the series and emphasizes the love of gold, silver, and everything mother-of-pearl that is used in china pattern design.
"A Host of Options (Luster)" printed at the University of Wyoming & Ucross Foundation, 2012
"A Host of Options (Luster)"--detail, screen print on lasercut paper, corsage pins, 2012
Dinner Music
“Dinner Music” is a collaborative video by David Colagiovanni and Melissa Haviland. It is a ten-minute visual and sound composition of a full set of fine china breaking on a large dining table. ”Dinner Music” will be edited from slow motion video and audio footage collected in July 2011 and will debut in Raleigh, NC in fall 2012.
“Dinner Music” draws attention to and allows us to examine a single destructive moment as the china gracefully explodes and then reconstitutes before our eyes. The discordant sound of breaking china will transform into music as the footage is slowed and accelerated, allowing us a transcendent interpretation of disaster.
More can be learned about the “Dinner Music” project at dinnermusic.org
You may also view other videos by Colagiovanni and Haviland on YouTube.
"Dinner Music" video still
“Dinner Music” is a collaborative video project by David Colagiovanni and Melissa Haviland.It is a ten-minute visual and sound composition of a full set of fine china breaking on a large dining table.“Dinner Music” will be edited from slow motion video and audio footage collected in July 2011 and will debut in Tallahassee, Florida in fall 2013.
“Dinner Music” draws attention to and allows us to examine a single destructive moment as the china gracefully explodes and then reconstitutes before our eyes. The discordant sound of breaking china will transform into music as the footage is slowed and accelerated, allowing us a transcendent interpretation of disaster.
More can be learned about the “Dinner Music” project at Dinner Music
"Dinner Music" video still
A full set of Haviland Moss Rose china.
The aftermath of the drop of a full set of Haviland Moss Rose china.
the melissa portraits
"Happy..." & "Between two kisses...", digital prints, 20" x 16"
This series uses all the china in stock at Replacements, Ltd. in October 2010 whose pattern name was ‘Melissa’. The images examine my relationship with china tableware and its associated etiquette and class structures. They also examine the role of the hostess and my historic use of sweets to placate others and myself.
"Sweet, sweet, sweet..." & "I started my sweet tooth early...", digital prints, 20" x 16"
"A story behind every cake..." & "pau se...", digital prints, 20" x 16"
pattern of refinement
Pattern of Refinement, incorporates drawing, printmaking, sculptural objects, performance, and viewer participation. This series consists of the installation of three circular, mixed-media drawings (Cyclical Pattern, Mingled Pattern, & Pattern of Refinement) and their accoutrements, displayed on the floor in the exhibition space. This work draws the viewers’ attention to obsession and frustration with etiquette rules and issues around class divisions in our culture. The drawings function as spaces similar to the three rings of a circus. Each drawing, on treated canvas, measuring 6 feet in diameter, depicts a round, fine dining table, seen from above.
"Cyclical Pattern" (detail), charcoal on canvas, 6' x 6', 2008
Cyclical Pattern, is a realistic charcoal rendering of the given table, setting the stage for the trio on the whole. Being displayed directly on the floor counterbalances the drawing’s elegance by bringing feet in contact with the table surface.
"Mingled Pattern", graphite on canvas, serigraphy prints framed and laminated to 228 wood pieces, varies, 2010
Mingled Pattern, an abstracted, graphite drawing of the same table—mingles a mass of delicate floral patterns together on its surface. Similar to a child’s large play set, this piece incorporates 228 faux china ‘playing pieces’ of serigraphy prints adhered to wood tiles. Encouraged to ‘play house’ within the gallery space, the viewer imagines their own interaction with fine bone china.
"Pattern of Refinement", serigraphy of canvas, full set of Haviland china (Pink Garland), performance, 2009
Pattern of Refinement, the title for the complete trio and the final piece, is a screen print interpretation of the same table laid with a set of Haviland china. For the performance element, each piece of china is balanced on the head in turn as I walked the edge of the large print. This piece combines elements of the tragedy of breaking a piece of the family china and the once more common exercise of balancing books on the head to perfect posture. As I perform, each broken saucer brings me further from the ideal of a full unblemished set of family china, but closer to the refinement of her posture and balance.
contemplating a need for indulgence
"Contemplating a Need for Indulgence," tent form, velvet cushion, flocked wallpaper, black sand, tea set; 2009
Contemplating a Need for Indulgence is a large installation paying tribute to the aesthetics of the classic Victorian parlor. A tent form at the far end of the space acts as a large skirt beckoning the viewer to crawl underneath onto a velvet cushion to play tea with the ornate child’s tea set. Hand-printed flocked wallpaper covers the walls to a wainscoting of black grosgrain ribbon. In the style of Indian rangoli, an act of Hindu prayer, the floor has been meditatively decorated with patterns using black sand.
"Contemplating a Need for Indulgence" tent form, velvet cushion, flocked wallpaper, black sand, tea set; 2009
Within this phase of my artistic work, I am visually examining the rhythm of one daily ritual that revolves around a single Haviland china teacup and its saucer. (48 drawings total)
The India Prints series includes two sets of four prints that began as wood engravings blocks completed during a Artist Residency at Artspace India in Kolkata in November 2007.
The Rupees series was directly inspired by rupee notes and the arches used in Mogul architecture. The central image for each of the four prints is a two-inch by three-inch wood engraving that combines and indulges in these two design areas. The prints own an abundance of color, pattern, and layering to comment on the overall visual intensity of India culture even in something as seemingly insignificant as their paper currency.
The Table Meditation prints contemplate this same visual abundance. The central image for each of the four prints is a three-inch by four-inch wood engraving that depicts a dining table, whose silhouette is again connected to the Mogul arch, set for two individuals and seen from above. The engravings show a mapping of table movement or conversation between two individuals. The astrological maps and rules that exist within Hindu culture inspired these mapping elements. The engravings are then contained within an ordered chaos of color and pattern.
"she is learning to use her inside voice IV & III", lithography & serigraphy, 15" x 20", 2007
Within this series of lithography and serigraphy prints, I focused on the refinement of restraint in image and in practice. They are representations of vintage hankies, quietly hanging. The backgrounds are printed with understated white-on-white patterns.
(12 prints total)
"she is learning to use her inside voice VIII & V", lithography & serigraphy, varies, 2007
everyday china
"Everyday China (obsess)", inkjet and charcoal on paper; 19.25” x 19.25”, 2007 & "Everyday China (foundation)", inkjet and charcoal on paper; 19.25” x 26.5”, 2007
My ongoing drawing series, Everyday China, set the foundation for the Pattern of Refinement work. The charcoal self-portraits look at class structure through family upbringing, questioning my connection in name to the Haviland China industry. They wonder, visually, what my life may have been like if I had been raised using fine bone china daily. They also mark a more indulgent use of visual pattern within my work, as a formal element and a symbol of the domestic realm.
These dark images, mired in a sea of repeated pattern, become an obsessive dance with materialism, daily ritual, identity, and class structure.
"Everyday China (fortunate)", inkjet and charcoal on paper; 22” x 40”, 2006
The following images are from the body of work, Choose Your Weapon, a combination of sculptural objects and charcoal drawings. Within this body of work, I have converted objects into weapons or armor for use in battles between the classes. Employing scale-change and placement as significant devices, larger-than-life sewing pins challenge the viewer to have a perceptual shift. You are invited to rethink how you relate to these everyday objects. The pins lose their intimate association and take on a menacing quality. The drawings included in the project depict a woman trying to protect herself from the world, with the only items at her disposal: a string of pearls, china platters and teacups, hankies, and assorted garments. She becomes Tweedledee or Tweedledum, foolishly strapping all her useless possessions to her as she prepares for “battle”.
"seem stress", porcelain, aluminum rod, and velvet; 15’ x 5’ x 1.5’; 2006 & "Coat of Arms", charcoal on paper; 57” x 40”, 2005
