Moribund mural (creeper’s delight) 2006, salt dough (detail)
Jealousy, gratitude and decreasing love
(french marigold, bell flowers and yellow rose / mixed emotion series) 2005, petal paste, royal icing, edible colouring, glass
Urban survival & urban defence kits 2005, recycle glass jars, jam, instruction booklets
Thing and String workshop at Tate Britain 2006
Cake for me, Bread for the others
In his second solo show at MKgalerie.nl, Shane Waltener's sculptures and installation use domestic craft to reflect on greed, desire and lust.
Drawing on baroque and gothic aesthetics, each piece seemingly celebrates wealth, abundance and ornamentation whilst also acting as a vanitas, a bittersweet reminder of death and the darker aspects of human nature.
The main gallery will feature 10 sugar and glass sculptures, kaleidoscopic prisms of light and colour aimed to thrill, covet and seduce. Each piece references the symbolic language of flowers and is a reminder that sugar can both preserve and be a catalyst for decay.
Next to these a large mural made out of salt dough will run along whole length of the gallery. Pattern in this will recall plant creepers, baroque relief’s and street graffiti. The scorched and burned surface of the salt dough providing a stark contrast to the colourful exuberance of the sugar and glass pieces.
Artist made jams will also be exhibited in the gallery. Directions for use are printed on the side of one series of these, aimed to confound the viewer. Another series is the product of guerrilla gardening and harvesting of berries in central London. In the back gallery, large string structures will be stretched out and hung directly onto the wall, appearing like giant doilies of fishing nets left out to dry with their bounty still attached to them.
The back gallery will also feature an interactive project planned for the opening night and during the festival The World of Witte the With on 9 and 10 September.
Visitors will be invited to decorate cakes and contribute to Waltener's existing cake collection, an ongoing project that references rituals and ceremonies associated with cake decorating and aims to trace social history of the craft.
Shane Waltener is an artist living in London. He has contributed to numerous exhibitions internationally and completed a number of commission for public venues and museums including the Prague National Gallery 2005, MIAT (Ghent) 2005, Tate Britain (London) 2004 and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) 2004.
Selected shows:
2006
Cake for Me, Bread for the Others
MKgalerie.nl
nEUclear reactions
Contemporary Art Centre in Burgos, Spain
Knit this...
South Hill Park, Bracknell
Fresh! At Southhampton
What's for Dinner...
Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (MoDA), Middlesex
Covet this...
Thy Neighbours’ Ox 2 at Space Station
2005
Sugar and Glass
ArtForum Berlin
Sweet Nothings: an intimate history of cake decorating
Pump House Gallery, London
Chaplin Chandelier
London College of Communication
nEUclear reactions
Prague Biennale, Czech
Sensory Clinic
International 3 in Manchester
Métissages
MIAT, Museum Industriele Archeologie Textiel, Gent, Belgium
Knit 2 together: Concepts in Knitting
The Craft Council, London
Goth Moth
Transition Gallery London
More work in Cologne…
Art Fair Cologne
Cake at Tate
British Art Week at Tate Britain
Willkommen all
Metropole Galleries, Folkestone
2004
Going Dutch
MKgalerie.nl, Rotterdam
Knitting Performance
Palais de Tokyo, 2004, Paris
ArtForum Berlin, 2004
Chihuly Covered
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
