Party Favors, 2019. porcelain, paper, cellophane, mylar, LED’s
Party decorations serve to punctuate and enhance a moment, and are then swept away. Swags of frosting on a cake may be cut and distorted, consumed, or merely scraped off to the side of the plate. The combined specificity of temporary decoration and its ephemerality creates a contradictory duality. Recreating decorations such as frosting, streamers and confetti in porcelain, a permanent material, serves to freeze an otherwise transitory aesthetic experience. This provides a way for the decoration to exist as an object, on its own permanent terms.
This piece was made for Nearur: a one night installation event, curated and hosted by Jessie Vala at The Kesey farm Project in Pleasant Hill, OR. The piece consisted of 70 Take-away favor bags. Each bag was a miniature curation of porcelain objects, representing shredded paper, confetti, frosting, straws, erasers and sponges. Each bag was editioned, containg a small, numbered card. All of the bags together displayed a cohesive and unified, celebratory piece for the event. Guests chose their favorite one to take with them and the piece disappeared throughout the evening.
In the spirit of Ken Kesey's cultivation of community, these party favors are an act of generosity: an archival celebration of the handmade, social connection and creative confluence.
