Art

Nyeema Morgan makes art from pound cake recipes at the Bindery Projects

By Sheila Regan Thu., Aug. 23 2012 at 6:59 AM
Categories: Art
Bindery .jpg
image courtesy of the artist
Forty-Seven Easy Poundcakes Like grandma Used To Make (7 or 47), 2007 by Nyeema Morgan
Some would argue that a perfect pound cake is a work of art in itself. The delectable mixture of simple ingredients -- butter, sugar, eggs, and flour -- is the staple of any respectable potluck, made by grandmothers and great-grandmothers everywhere. In "The Dubious Sum of Vaguely Discernable Parts," now on view at the Bindery Projects, Nyeema Morgan creates an ode to the moist deliciousness of pound cake, but also offers a study in the search for a perfect recipe, and the perfect work of art. 

In Forty-Seven Easy Poundcakes Like grandma Used To Make, a series that takes up most of the exhibit, Morgan has created 47 drawings, each made up of 47 different recipes juxtaposed together using Illustrator and printed on 8 x 5 index cards. 

25_Dubious_Sum_Install02_NMorgan.jpg
Dubious Sum installation, Patrick Kelley Worldwide Photography
The Bindery Projects' Nate Young explains that Morgan would begin with one recipe, then add another, crossing out words that were duplicated and reformulating the order until she felt satisfied. As she pasted one recipe on top of another, and the area became blackened, she would make an arrow to where the word or phrase could be seen. Each drawing, Young says, was made using the same method, although they all came out differently. 

"Anticipating congestion, I give sentences equitable room to breathe without resorting to strict measurements that would slow a labored process," she writes in an accompanying poem/essay. 

Viewing these dense drawings, you can imagine Morgan meticulously working on them, cramping words and pushing irreconcilable distances, as she calls it. It's an ultimate practice of obsessive compulsiveness -- the process used to create the work emanates from the drawings. 

The drawings become not just about the search for the perfect recipe but the search for the perfect system. It is a series very much about process, and showing in a visual way the struggle to create something -- a set of words that ultimately becomes an image. 

The other series in the exhibition is individual photographs of ingredients that go into pound cake -- so a heap of flour, or salt, for example. Displayed together, the ingredients become abstraction, in almost the opposite way as the conglomerated recipes. Where one is a process of addition, the other is a process of subtraction. 

25_Dubious-Sum_Tabloid_NMorgan_web.jpg
Patrick Kelley Worldwide Photography

The Bindery Projects opened in May, and Young says they hope to continue showing work about once a month throughout the fall. Since he completed graduate school at CalArts, Young has been interested in having a space where artists could show their work without worrying about selling the pieces. Rather, he wanted a place for artists to be validated in their practice. 

25_Dubious_Sum_Install_NMorgan.jpg
Patrick Kelley Worldwide Photography
Another reason for starting the gallery is because he feels he often doesn't see the kind of work that he enjoys around the Twin Cities. He's more interested in work that is a little more critical and has a social-political discourse, he says. "There's a gap in the alternative exhibit scene," he says. "It's pretty insular." 

Young met Morgan in a residency in Maine, and the two found they had similar ideas. He says he had an immediate reaction when he viewed her pound cake drawings, which she has been working on since 2007. When he asked her to do a show at the Bindery Projects, he was delighted that she said she wanted to show the series. 

The exhibition is free and open by appointment only. The Bindery Projects is at 708 Vandalia Ave. on the fourth floor, in St. Paul. To make an appointment, email thebinderyprojects@gmail.com. 

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