Pitcher Collection

The 105 collages of antique domestic objects in Allison Smith's Pitcher Collection work together and apart. Taken from Smith's own "inventory of images," used as reference in her studio practice (hence the title), each is cleverly composed and materially inviting. The glossy images are mounted on handmade paper that appears soft and rumpled, with deeply deckled edges. Hung in a grid on four walls of the gallery, the main colors of the images shift subtly from black-and-white to yellow, red, brown, green, and blue as the viewer looks counterclockwise around the room. On the whole, they create a taxonomic view of early American craft seen through a humorous, playful lens.

Only a few collages depict a single object in isolation. Most are juxtapositions of items that flirt with correspondences in shape, color, or decoration, as when the painted foliage at the top of an ornate drinking glass echoes the painted garden panel on a parlor mirror. In conjunction with these correspondences, Smith also plays with mismatched scale and perspective: the floral print on the skirt of a Colonial-era gown tents itself over a bed with similarly floral coverings; a silver snuffbox is as big as the table upon which it sits. These mismatched views amplify the sense of an eccentric system of categorization at work, a personal internal organization that deviates from more traditional categories of exact date of manufacture or classifications by original material, actual size, or use.  

Further, divorcing these representations from their original context complicates a clear view of Smith's intentions: is she inviting a socio-anthropological comparison of decoration versus use-value in craft, or is she creating a taxonomic structure to study dominant-culture objects that signify a

Untitled from Pitcher Collection, 2010; Collage on paper, 18.75 x 12.5 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Haines Gallery, San Francisco.

certain history and economic status? Or maybe the principle at work here is simply admiration for the objects, a categorical assembly meant to charm the viewer through its folksy use of mismatched images. Either way, Smith's inventory creates an engaging exhibition.

The Pitcher Collection is on view at Haines Gallery, in San Francisco, through October 23, 2010.

Bean Gilsdorf is an artist and writer. She contributes reviews, interviews, and commentary to DailyServing, Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture, Fiberarts Magazine, and Surface Design Journal.