“Around the Table”
Senior Theses Show
Staniar Gallery, W&L University, Lexington, VA
March 28-April 8, 2022
I can still remember the patterns covering the wooden table. They seemed to tell a story with the swirling imagery and intricate details that made them come to life. Many of my childhood memories involve sitting around this same table with my family and friends for dinner. While the people around the table changed, a couple things remained the same: the simple, white plates and the Persian block-printed tablecloth from my dad’s travels years ago. I remember my fascination with the ornate patterns and the collective designs they created on the tablecloth. These memories stuck with me and inspired me to host dinner parties with my own block-printed tablecloth.
My work is a representation of my love for patterns, building community, and creating shared experiences. Using linoleum block printing, film, and pattern design, I specifically explore how a shared meal can further guests’ appreciation of being able to gather. I also investigate the role Covid-19 played and continues to play in our lives through colorful and alluring pattern work on the tablecloth. This Covid imagery that I became desensitized to from the exhaustive use of it in our world, I then transferred in the form of pattern on the repeated tablecloth. I chose warm yellows, oranges, reds, and a cool, deep purple to emulate the warmth felt around a table with those you love. The symbols that once kept family and friends apart now unite strangers and friends for a shared meal.
I film both dinner parties as a form of documentation of the shared experience. Documentation continues throughout my work in the form of saved-grocery-receipt patterns, collected guest reflection cards, and a short film with footage from the dinner parties. I document these moments so that others can reflect on what it means to them to gather.
I see my work fitting into the broader art world through relational aesthetics, which encapsulates this human connection in the context of art. At each dinner party, the table is not necessarily crowded with tons of people, but instead filled with conversation, personalities, and even a sigh of relief because we can start to gather again.