Venice, California
Very Small Fires Gallery
Anna Sew Hoy’s work has a lot to do: it refers to the politics of display and consumer culture, makes note of the DIY aspect of art-making, and comments on personal lifestyle. The individual objects are made from a number of different materials, using a wide range of processes. There are many themes—craft versus machine, high design, fashion, and consumerism—layered over four different classes of objects. These objects consist of octagonal ceramic pieces (most covered in fabric), the obsessively designed stands that display them, fabric objects so deconstructed that there’s little left but strips of fabric zippers and labels, and linear, circular steel objects. Hoy’s statement explains the title of the show, “Home Office,” by giving an account of a workday in her studio. She describes the sprawl of computer cords, a pile of clothes, her cluttered worktable, identifying these daily sights as sources of imagery and information. She compares touching her laptop’s keyboard with touching clay, one of her many materials…see the entire review in the print version of December’s Sculpture magazine.
