Greed
As a whole, though, the
work is remarkably seamless.
Their process, no doubt, helped
blend the results. The two be-
gan by bouncing nonstop ideas
off each other. (“W e should all
die and go to heaven and do
that,” Tate says.) They zeroed
in on the ills they would aim to
treat and how to visually
Above:
The concept for
Greed
(2010) came quickly to
the artists, who heaped
clay casino chips into
cast-glass hands.
Another cast hand
hoists a dollar sign atop.
Right:
Sloth
(2010) features
cast-glass piles of
laundry and stacks
of paper; a miniature
lawnmowcr stands
idle. A game of
solitaire loops on
the video screen.
Left:
Gluttony
(2010) is pure
glass: Tate made the
slices of cake, while
Petrovic created the
hot-glass cupcake finial,
which bears the message
“Eat Me.”
Sloth
represent their ideas, then split
up the workload according to
who was best equipped to cre-
ate or manipulate each element.
They mostly worked separately,
shipping pieces back and forth
- all of the intricate elements
waiting to come together when
it was time for final assembly.
Tw o heads are better than
one, and, as it turns out, four
hands are better than two. “It
was nice to not have the full
burden of idea generation on
my own shoulders, as well as
the technical generation of the
actual pieces,” Petrovic says.
“Even when we came up with
stuff together, [T ate] would
add to it - furthering it along
- and then I’d come up with
one more minor change,
then he could add on top of
that. The buildup just seemed
stronger than relying on your
own experiences.”
When
Apothecarium
was on
display at M A D , the museum
expressed an interest in acquir-
ing the piece. But Tate and
Petrovic had promised the joint
work to Heller Gallery for the
2010 Chicago SO F A [Sculpture
Objects & Functional Art ]
show. To ensure they wouldn’t
be caught empty-handed, they
began work on another collabo-
ration for the gallery. This
time Tate, having conceived
of
Apothecarium
, insisted that
Petrovic choose the over-
arching theme. He came up with
Seven Deadly Sins
- and the duo
started their process all over
again, this time freed from the
rule of including organic com-
ponents. While
Apothecarium'
s
natural materials give the work
a relatively muted palette,
Sev-
en Deadly Sins
is an explosion of
color and good-natured humor.
Look closely: Each piece is
loaded with detail. The green
finial that sits atop
E n vy
, for
example, is a cast-glass likeness
apr/may 11 american craft 045
