Frosting as sculpture. Yes, frosting. Hard to conceive of, but divine when it is executed properly. This is just one of the mundane substances that Carolyn Mason transforms into magical, whimsical installations that offer subtle commentary of our materialistic surrounds. Her work normally starts out as performance- installations that are captured photographically and may later “evolve into individual sculptures.”
Other everyday items used by Mason include paint rollers, mops, and dish soap.
I am particularly drawn to her soap bottles and vases.
These are the profane made sacred: porcelain glazed in celadon for a luminous crackle effect. The lines are so very pleasing without the branding and we may step back and appreciate the form itself.
Equally intriguing if less radiant are the paint rollers. These range from ordinary store-bought tools inserted into an environment to large scale eccentricities to duplications of form that seem to be in the midst of a rapid division and reproductive cycles. Everyday objects with a will of their own a creepy thought in a mass consumer society.
Mason lives and creates in Los Angeles. She holds a MFA from Mills College, Oakland, CA.
