MARGARET LEE

I work for Margaret Lee at 47 Canal and assisted her over the summer, so I was super excited to see her name first on this list of artists/shows we’re going to see. To be completely honest, I don’t think I “get” her work all that well, which could a good thing? 

Though I feel like being in close contact with it for all these months should have left me with a more enlightened perspective. 

What I find so fascinating about it is that there could be so much meaning packed into the realistic yet plaster fruits and vegetables, yet at the same time it could just be a joke.  I think her sculptures are hilarious. 

Once in 93 degree weather, she sent me out looking for an American eggplant so she could make one for a sculpture, and I spent three hours walking in circles in Chinatown (the gallery is in Chinatown) to no avail. I finally walked all the way to Whole Foods and bought one for five dollars that was “organic imported from Mexico etc etc.” I felt like that experience somehow articulates what the experience of looking at one of her food related sculptures is like--it’s all very surreal and seems to be telling you a lot about your own method and process of looking for meaning in an object and its relationship to other objects in an otherwise empty space, and maybe there is no significant meaning in that weirdly tense relationship, but you could probably find some anyway. 

-----> so much tension!!!!!!

Also, I love that the show space doesn’t have to have a lot of things in it for art to be heard. The aesthetic is minimal kitschy / playful and doesn’t take itself too seriously, but has so much snark and historical/contextual consideration behind it. I really hope she doesn’t read this in case I’m completely off. 

Fun fact: Margaret Lee met Matthew Higgs (whom she’s showing with) on the disco dance floor where they became friends over their mutual love of DJ Harvey. “People think you have to be schmoozy to make it in the art world, you know... but really you just have to like to disco.” - M. Lee. (I may be misremembering this conversation and have gotten all of it wrong). 

note: after going to her show today and actually seeing the objects in relation to each other and the annunciation of the context she's putting her work into, MAKES MORE SENSE