Dominique Ostuni’s solo exhibition, “Would an Angel Apologize for Spilling Champagne,” is on view through Oct. 3 at Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland.
A centerpiece of the exhibition is “Excess Comes Naturally,” an elaborate mirror standing more than 8 feet tall. The work begins with an ordinary functional object, then overwhelms that function with porcelain, 22-karat gold, light, figures, flowers, drawings and ornament.
Hundreds of handmade flowers and figures crowd the surface. Ostuni gilded, drew on, altered and handled every inch through hours of repetitive work. The gold emphasizes the object’s preciousness while revealing the labor of creating one small element after another and weaving the pieces into a story larger than the mirror itself.
The figures are based on artists, lovers, musicians, models, proprietors and other characters from the social world of Montparnasse in 1930s Paris.
“I took it a step further and remade them as badly behaved angels,” Ostuni said. “I liked taking this mythology of bohemian Paris, all of its artistic seriousness, sex, vanity, parties, hunger, performance, and (self-obsessed) self-invention, and turning it into a kind of decorative heaven. They become saints, ornaments, witnesses, angels who have lost their wings, and little social climbers all at once.”
Even the mirror’s dimmer switch became part of the work.
“I turned it into another figure,” Ostuni said, “so you physically rotate a person to control the light. It makes the object a little ridiculous again. This enormous, gilded porcelain mirror with all its references to luxury and art history still has to perform the very mundane task of getting brighter and darker, and it does so by making you twist a tiny body. Specifically, the body of an apple dealer. I love that the utility isn’t disguised by the luxury; it gets absorbed into its theater.”
Also on view at the gallery are “Eye of the Beholder” by Bo Bartlett, “The Whale” by Scott Kelley and “Sea Change,” a group exhibition.
Dowling Walsh Gallery is at 357 Main St., Rockland. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment Sunday and Monday. Call 207-596-0084, email info@dowlingwalsh.com or visit www.dowlingwalsh.com for more information.
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