Allison Sommers – ‘Temple Monkeys’ process

Allison process 3 — View of Allison Sommers' work area as 'Temple Monkeys' comes to life

‘Schlaraffenland’

new work by Allison Sommers

Opening Reception: Fri, May 7th 7-10PM
with the good folks from The Mandoline Grill Truck out serving up goodness

Allison process 1 — 'Temple Monkeys' from Allison Sommers starting to take shape

Allison has really outdone herself for this show – almost 50 pieces will be on view including her first bronze sculpture, several add’l sculptures as well as resin casts of the bronze along with a vast array of paintings and drawings from big to small… not to mention some very interesting aspic influenced jello sculptures (you’ll have to see these).

Allison process 2 — 'Temple Monkeys' taking shape and awaiting final touches

Allison’s Statement for ‘Schlaraffenland‘:
In these works, I want to engage with the metaphor of Schlaraffenland, the world of plenty, to explore the facets of gross abundance and to complicate what it means to take pleasure in the flesh. In Schlaraffenland, everything and everyone is part of a grotesque banquet of plenty, and consumption of others is not a transgressive act but rather a necessary engagement of the world around them.

There is an eroticism – consumption is, after all, the taking-in of the external– that charges Schlaraffenland with excitement and danger; while some creatures give themselves freely for consumption, others are trapped, tricked, or cajoled into giving bits of themselves up to the feast. I’m fascinated by the uncertainty this creates in the relationships between my creatures, who are at once both so cheerful and dangerous. It’s the tension created by this ambiguity that invigorates the world of these creatures: seductive, dangerous, peculiar Schlaraffenland.