Archive News
Candy Land - 19 Oct 2009
Dutch-born Marijon Spee, presents a city of towers made from utilitarian ‘seven-day pill boxes.’ Her city is visually enhanced with a back-drop of mirror-like walls in Tauranga Art Gallery’s downstairs gallery. Spee, who works from her Pyes Pa studio, fills her towers with colourful drugs (sweeties in disguise). They might look tempting in this context but Spee alludes to modern day drug-dependency, both legal and illegal, in this work aptly named Candy Land.
Indeed, the colourful drug look-alikes represent addictions such as caffeine, sugar, fat and alcohol. Spee’s concern is with the cycle of the daily grind of working to nurture our addictions. The city, a place of work, play and crime, is integral to this treadmill.
Spee also shows her audience that the sculptor can use readily available objects. Gone are the days of working exclusively in expensive marble or bronze. Her second work, Incoming, consists of plastic aeroplane-shaped spoons. Cubes of sugar resting on the spoons allude to sugary coatings and the sweetening of the palette. Spee’s little plastic effigies symbolise the guilt felt by some for long-haul flying and accruing air miles for which we are given treats the more we collect. This is like the sugar cube, or sweetie, given out as a reward to children and animals alike for good deeds.
Marijon Spee’s two installations visually surprise with her imaginative use of materials. They also ask deeper questions of the individual about life in a world where Disneyland (Candy Land), with all its artificiality, remains attractive.
Spee completed her art education at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Auckland, and has exhibited regularly in Tauranga and Auckland.
Candy Land can be viewed at Tauranga Art Gallery until Sunday 13 December.
© 2009