Feast Your Eyes: “Artists and Recipes” at Marvin Gardens
Page 6 of Artist & Recipes.
At Marvin Gardens, an immersive, discordant potluck of multimedia artistry is tucked away in a winding maze. Artists & Recipes is the culmination of a personal project started during the early weeks of COVID-19 by Abby Lloyd, while she grappled with the loss of her mother. The recipe book, featuring dishes ranging in desirability, encourages readers to “sink [their] teeth into a smorgasbord of sweet stories, mouthwatering artworks, and a bunch of tips for every sort of occasion.” From xeroxed family heirlooms to the deranged outlines of food-like concepts, the book was a way to create community and share a sense of intimacy missed by many during the quarantine.
The opening day of the exhibition was christened with fervor. Visitors will first encounter Chris Retsina’s sculpture of a water-guzzling “Taverna man,” guarding the rest of the art like a vigilant but drugged-out watchdog. We are also embraced by the jazzy saxophonic tunes courtesy of John Ajilo (@jazzajilo) and his army of dancing animatronic cats. It’s almost like a shotgun wedding, or throwing a spaghetti noodle against your kitchen backsplash to check if it’s al-dente: eccentric and untraditional, but effective.
Chris Retsina, Taverna man drinking water. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Each participating artist was encouraged to bring a dish to share, and they were free to stray from their respective submission included in the recipe book. “Mine was in the kiddie pool from the dollar store,” Lloyd said. “It’s the Constant Craving Salad, based on the k.d. lang song. When my mom was ill, we kept trying to find healthy things for her to eat. I made this salad for her, and it was really tasty. She would say, ‘I’m always craving it,’ so I made that today, but I added a lot of lettuce for volume.”
Potluck table at the opening of Artists & Recipes. Photo by Sterling Corum.
The volume turned out to be necessary. The salad was demolished to a residue of wilted greens amidst a medley of desserts, dips, and indistinguishable piles of greasy crumbs. The sickly-sweet chaos, like the rainbow-layered jello cake that very few dared consume, led visitors through a gallery of artworks staggering in size and theme. Tisch Abelow brought a vegan pesto spaghetti squash recipe and the painting Congratulations, inspired by a photo from the ’80s. Abelow said, “In the sense that everyone just put in whatever they wanted, there’s community…I don’t think it fits in a conceptual way.” Abelow’s work is one of many facing the buffet table, in a section of paintings that showcases both novelty and grocery.
Installation view of Artists & Recipes at Marvin Gardens. Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein.
My conversation with Lloyd was disjointed and frequently interrupted by friends, family, and collaborators, only further emphasizing the communal element of this exhibition. Hadley Vogel, a friend of Lloyd’s from high school, barreled through the crowd for an embrace—she’d just arrived from Maryland. We stood beneath her piece: a cozy needlepoint of a Mr. Goodbar that frames the entry to an unassuming hallway. “When I don’t book bind, I needlepoint,” Vogel said. Her recipe, Lala’s Green Beans, echoes this quaint and domestic theme twofold. The recipe is a cross-cultural, grandma-forward, Georgian casserole that Vogel claims is “best enjoyed in the Caucasus Mountains overlooking a serene lake, wearing a large white, fur hat.”
One room over, viewers will find one of the more halting pieces in the collection, Dysfunctional Family Matters, by Jo Shane. The installation features an email that describes the manic episode of a partner and begging a psychiatrist for professional help, affixed to an upright mattress. Lloyd describes the salon as “an explosion of color and life, with glimpses of darkness throughout,” and Shane’s piece is one of the more troubling looks behind the metaphorical curtain. It reflects the purpose behind Lloyd’s collection: examining deeper family wounds while still celebrating the togetherness of it all.
Installation view of Artists & Recipes at Marvin Gardens. Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein.
During the opening, I viewed this piece as part of a small herd stumbling into the room, with Bud Lights sloshing until each of us succumbed to the silence this piece demanded. This emotionally tense, albeit uninviting arrangement of artworks in the annex also includes a simple but poignant ceramic apology from Josh Cohen, and a claustrophobic painting of people trapped in an attic by Michelle Uckotter.
Through another door is a purgatory emanating the clinical energy of waiting for your name to be called at a doctor’s office. Patent leather chairs that are unpleasant and slightly sticky, a Rolodex made of denim pockets, and a photograph reminiscent of the traffic at a vaccination site flank the brick walls. Both films can be viewed here, touching on mental health in opposite approaches and mediums. ELI, by Nate Milton, an official selection from Sundance, tells the story of a patient convinced that a raccoon had put a rock inside his ear. The other film by Bo Geddes is centered on a man being chased on bananas. These final ingredients in the hodgepodge soup (soups and chilis can be found on pages 23–28 in the recipe book) drive home Lloyd’s mission in this project: cultivating a space for art for everyone to celebrate, engorge, or weep. “I feel like it’s like a wedding or something,” Lloyd says. “I just want it to be not pretentious, fun, and a good hang.”
Abby Lloyd invites you to explore the home-cooked landscape with all the awkward discoveries you bring to visiting a friend’s house for the first time. Pull up a chair and join them at the dinner table, or you could eat on the floor if that’s more your style.
Artist & Recipes will be on display at Marvin Gardens until October 6th, 2024. The final exhibition will include a bake off.
