As anyone who has watched You’ve Been Framed will know, when one wants to smarten up one’s home, it’s best to get the experts in. Taking the cheap route and attempting a bit of DIY looks an attractive option, but it will inevitably end up costing more to fix the ensuing disaster as well as posing a real threat to life and limb. Another problem with home improvements is that, no matter how many weekends are sacrificed, how many hellish trips to IKEA are made, and how many injuries are sustained, there is always something else that needs to be done. It never ends.
Greek scholars will recall the tale of Sisyphus, who was cursed to spend his days rolling a bloody great boulder up a bloody great hill, only to see it roll back down again and his labours begin anew. Artist Lee Materazzi knows how he feels, having recently completed (if that’s the correct word) an interpretation of the Sisyphus allegory using a garage as a substitute for the insurmountable peak and a series of inventively staged and ultimately futile tasks to stand in for the boulder. For example, the San Francisco-based artist painstakingly creates a field of flowers, and then dismantles it all as soon as the last petal is in position; it’s about the importance of a never-ending forward-moving creative process rather than arriving at a completed destination. As in Materazzi’s previous work, she also explores the confines of space, cramming herself and others into unlikely corners, passing through walls and poking out of uncomfortable spots. Squeeze in a visit to see Materazzi’s DIY series at Quint Gallery in La Jolla, San Diego, from 13 September to 31 October.
Balloons
Buried in my Garage
Love Seat
Lazy Girl, Diptych
Making a Dark Space Bright
Elephant Ride
Field of Flowers
Far Corner
