Art
#food
#Marisa Adesman
#painting
#still life
#surreal
![a fork in a vase of water twists and coils against a floral backdrop](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/adesman-1.jpg)
“Imitatio Ludum” (2020), oil on panel, 10 x 8 inches. All photos courtesy of the artist and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles/New York, shared with permission
Marisa Adesman unsettles home stability by twisting frequent sights into the surreal. From her studio in St. Louis, the artist infuses nonetheless lifes evocative of the Dutch Golden Age with an odd animism: forks coil round lit taper candles, an upside-down terracotta pot seems to levitate, and an illustrated kitchen tile seamlessly morphs into the feathered flesh of a duck. The luminous oil work use meals and eating to discover problems with gender, tradition, and politics, together with the invisible labor girls traditionally have undertaken.
A seemingly easy software, the fork turns into a loaded metaphor in Adesman’s works. The modern steel cutlery is buoyant and feisty because it shape-shifts and writhes, remodeling a static instrument right into a full of life actor. “As an emblem of each nurturance and management, the fork’s pliability questions the hierarchies of worth that we’ve positioned on the concepts of ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized,’ ‘home’ and ‘wild’…Through the use of numerous cutlery to feed ourselves, we dine relatively than eat, believing we’re one way or the other extra refined, extra civilized than different species,” she shares.
Whereas the fork work suggest a human presence, Adesman’s newer works translate the physique into phantasmic kinds. “By a Thread,” for instance, witnesses shiny, translucent fingers greedy at a pulley rope, whereas lace-gloved palms in “Out From Beneath” emerge from the floorboards alongside a bouquet.
“I intention to create pressure between contrasting sensations: sensual but horrifying, nourishing but violent, acquainted but surreal, alluring but misleading,” the artist provides. “These dichotomies function a metaphor for the paradoxes of human life and particularly the female expertise.” Enchanted by a mysterious power, the work name consideration to the immense labor of sustaining home life that, to those that have historically benefitted from it, could have appeared like magic all alongside.
Discover extra of Adesman’s work on her site and Instagram.
![a gold fork spilts into two pronged heads that entwine against a backdrop of tile with a hanging duck](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/adesman-2.jpg)
“Midnight Snack” (2021), oil on canvas, 20 x 14 inches
![a white cloth covers a seemingly animated form atop a wooden table with two dining chairs](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/adesman-3.jpg)
“All’s Truthful…” (2021), oil on canvas, 18 x 25.25 inches
![a lit candle coils into a circle with a fork wrapped around the form](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/adesman-4.jpg)
“Chasing Tail” (2022), oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches
![a silver fork bends and twists along a crystal cobweb](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/adesman-5.jpg)
“All of the Trappings” (2020), oil on panel, 10 x 8 inches
![a lit candle inches toward a bouquet like worm. flowers poke through a canvas on the right](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/adesman-6.jpg)
“By a Thread” (2023), oil on canvas, 24 x 22 inches
![a cushioned red seat of a wooden chair tips downward to a hole in the floor where hands reach up with flowers. a sheet and an upside down plant in a terracotta pot float above](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/adesman-7.jpg)
“Out From Beneath” (2023), oil on canvas, 62 x 42 inches
#food
#Marisa Adesman
#painting
#still life
#surreal
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