Let Them Eat Cake
February 6 to 28, 2009
Leah Rosenberg
Ruth Jones
Jennifer Mawby
Joanne Strongman
Guest Curated by Sherri Kajiwara
Inspired by a pivotal scene in the 2006 Academy Award winning film Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola and contemplating the traditional historical creative outlets for women of so-called domestic arts, Let Them Eat Cake features the work of three artists, in diverse mediums, who turn the entire concept on its ear. The modern world is driven by desire for sex, money and food, not necessarily in that order. Cake is a delicious metaphor for life.
Leah Rosenberg is a Canadian living the US. She completed her masters at the California College of Art in San Francisco in 2008. Ruth Jones is a Vancouver based tapestry artist trained in Paris and New York, whose work hangs in the Koerner Wing of the MOA. Jennifer Mawby is a multi-media artist based in Vancouver.
“A cake to me is a work of art with the intention of generosity. It is beautiful, it is structural, it is an evocative work of color and balance. And then people eat it. They consume it. They find it too sweet or too sticky or too vanilla-y. And then they move on. This is the generosity of art. Create with intention and then, set it free.” Leah Rosenberg
“In France where I learned to weave, the French for Tapestry and for Pastry is very close; so close that in fact you can turn one word into the other with one letter swap. I also notice that both art forms require care and flare in the making and share a role as custom creations given to commemorate an event, arrival or passage. I played with spelling the two names out as one word, and liked it very much, because, in the saying of it, the meaning becomes “Your Pastry” which suits the gesture of offering that I intend.” Ruth Jones