Shelley Miller - Consumptuous.com - News

"Saccharum BA" exhibition in Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:31:00 +0000

Exhibition in Salvador, Brazil at Museum of Modern Art of Bahia
from June 15 - July 30, 2009.
For more images and information, check out the project blog:

www.consumptuous.com/blog

New blog!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:20:00 +0000

For upcoming projects I have a new blog. The information on this blog will stay here for the time being. Check out the new one for all kinds of behind-the-scene images and information:

www.consumptuous.com/blog

For good measure

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:05:00 +0000

After my mural installation in Salvador, I had an obscene amount of icing left over. I couldn't very well through it out, so I decided to do a intervention in Itaparica for fun. One night, I went out to do this "throw up" on an abandoned building. Soon after I began, a couple of teenagers stopped to see what I was doing. My friend Liane explained while I carried on working. They were really intrigued, and stayed to watch and hang out. Coincidentally, one of them remembered a sugar installation I did 3 years ago. Slowly, a few of their friends showed up, and they too, stayed to watch. By the end, about 2 hours later, there were about 10 teenagers, surrounding me, sitting on the sidewalk and the street. They waited until I finished, and then everyone left.
This photo is of the early stages, when it was just me and the first of my fans.

As luck would have it, it rained the same night that I installed it. So the next day I went back to document it. I really wasn't expecting anything to be left, but surprisingly, it was still mostly in tact.

All good things come to those who wait...

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:01:00 +0000

Yes, indeed, you will have to wait to see more photos of this installation...
The mural lasted about one month, doing things I hadn't expected. I returned every 3 or 4 days, depending on the rainfall, and documented it's fall from grace. I'm currently in the process of editing those photos and video footage and will wait until I have an exhibition to reveal them.

Until then...

The Wealth of Some and the Ruin of Others

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Installing the mural in the street...

Each sugar tile was applied with royal icing as glue.

These are my security guards

This guy worked across the street and he kept trying to get people walking by to taste the sugar. This woman was a good sport and tried. Most people thought he was pulling a prank and were too afraid to taste it.

Crack filling

Piping the border:

Drumroll.... here it is....

Exhibition at Galeria Pierre Verger in Salvador, Bahia

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:20:00 +0000

This is a ceramic installation of terracotta tiles I made in Canada and brought with me. The images are a combination of imagery relating to the history of sugar, colonization and slavery.

Photos of previous installations I did in Brazil.

Installing the show... with much help from my friends. The gallery didn´t really do anything for the show. It´s the end of the season, and so they have no money left in the budget! We had to do everything ourselves. Luckily, it was a pretty straight-forward install.

More progress shots

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:26:00 +0000

All of the painting is now done. I´m just waiting until next week to install it. I found a wall that I think will work well. It wasn´t my first choice for location, but it´s close to the gallery, so that was the deciding factor. I decided it was more strategic to choose a location close to the gallery so that people wouldn´t have to go to 2 locations. The tiles are now stacked, and awaiting for their new home...

Almost there...

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:08:00 +0000

No more pictures just yet... waiting to use my friends camera. It sucks to have to borrow a camera. Ah well...
The sugar tiles are all painted. The mural design is now done. So I´m basically just waiting until next week to install it in the street. I still have to find a place to put it. It´s been raining quite a lot which is really unusual for this time of year. Most of you have probably seen reports on the news about the floods in Brazil. I´m not in that area, but it´s not too far from here. Needless to say, there´s been a bit more rain than I had anticipated.

I´ve also realized that the mural won´t last nearly as long as I had been expecting it to. The test I did in Montreal lasted 2 months. Even at different times of the year, in different Canadian cities, my sugar installations usually last about 2 months. But I´m realizing that here, it´ll probably be 2 weeks. For starters, the rain and humidity will eat away at the tiles a lot (LOT) faster. Even just in the apartment, a lot of my tiles keep "sweating" and getting little moisture spots. I have to re-do about 12 or 15 because they just won´t dry out and keep getting more and more rotten. I´m used to dealing with the fondant tiles in dry weather, not the tropics. So the material itself is more fragile. And then there are the people. Canadians are a polite lot. One could even say shy, timid. Curious, sure. But Canadians are more inclinded to look, not to touch. Brazillians - not shy. They will touch. I´m expecting that some people will even try to take some tiles off the wall. Who knows. It´s all speculation at this point. But I´m getting really anxious to just get the thing up. What happens after is out of my control. I can deal with that.

The plan is to install the work the day before the opening. I also have to mount the exhibition in the gallery. I´ll be showing photos and a small installation of ceramic tiles I made in Canada and brought here. The opening is Thursday, December 11. This week I´ll be getting my photos printed and mounted. And I´ll be looking for a new bikini. I thought that was a really important detail I should include in this posting.

A few glitches in the master plan...

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:16:00 +0000

Weather. This is what I am contending with. I´m not sure why I have chosen to collaborate with such an unwilling partner, but I have. And I´ve tried working with this unpredictable compadre many times in the past. There are actually quite a lot of unpredictable collaborators that I´ve tried working with in the past: ants for example. They come when I don´t want them, yet don´t come when I do.

For my mural to be "successful" (whatever that even means) it must slowly wash away. This will cause the colours to run and eventually for the image to fade away. The clear, crisp azulejo design is meant to turn ugly and decrepid, turning from decadence to decay. So rain will be a good thing. Once the work is installed.

When I arrived here, my friend Gaio said, "oh, there is no rain at this time of year. It´s summer. There will be very little rain." So of course I was troubled by this, but what could I do except just plug ahead and make my work. Most of my tiles have been layed out on wooden boards and on a shelf in a balcony-like space in Gaio´s apartment. Its a fully enclosed room but has a large open window. It´s like a cross between a porch and a balcony. This was a great space, it seemed, because it was out of the way, and there was a lot of air flow for things to dry.

I´m sure you can see where this is all leading... Yes, it finally decided to rain. 2 days ago it rained and there was no major problem. It was a short rainfall, and no moisture got into the room. But then there was today. I woke up to the sound of rain, so I quickly ran out to make sure things were alright. At first, all seemed fine. I had a few sheets of plastic covering one shelf and then I hung up a sheet across the open window just to prevent drops from blowing inward. It all seemed fine. Then the rain increased. And the wind picked up. Before I knew it, moisture had covered most of the tiles, and I was desperately trying to shield the finished tiles with a thin sheet of plastic. It was still quite early and Gaio and Liane were sleeping, but I had to yell for help! So finally they came and we carried the shelf and the table surfaces into the apartment living room, out of harms way.

The result: Most will be ok. The tops only got a small amount of moisture and they seemed to have dried already. Some,that weren´t dry to begin with are still very moist and may take longer to set up. But all in all I think it´s ok. But I don´t feel safe using that space anymore. So today we´re going to go out and buy some large shelving units that I can set up in the living room and store everything inside. I didn´t want to monopolize all of the apartment, but it looks like I´ll have to for the next 2 weeks.

You may wonder, "why no more pictures, Shelley?" Well, that´s the other story... My camera was stolen 2 days ago. Canon G9 - gone. I was outside our building putting up a small sugar test piece. Leane was using my camera to take pictures of me. It was just the 2 of us, Gaio stayed in the apartment. And before we knew it, this kid came at us and grabbed it from her. It all happened to fast, there wasn´t much we could do. He ran back down into the favela (slums. There´s a favela just down the hill from where we live. Normally, there seem to be police everywhere, but of course they aren´t around when you need them. It was 4;00pm. This isn´t a bad area, it´s just a really quiet street and there was no one around at that moment. Thefts can happen anywhere. We should have been more careful, having a camera out. When I install my big piece, we´ll have more people. We even spoke to one police officer and he said it would be easy to get some police or security supervision. It probably won´t be necessary, but it would make us feel better having our cameras out. I still have my video camera, and Gaio has the same camera I did, the G9. So I´ll use his when I need to document the work. I´m not sure if my insurance will cover it. I have a police report but I´ll likely wait until I´m back home to find out if it even matters.

Of course, it was a difficult experience and I was pretty upset the night it happened. Moreso than angry or afraid, I was just sad that there is such desperation in the world that a 13 year old kid would need to resort to stealing a camera. Of course, there are even worse things in the world, but it all just makes me sad.
I´m alright though. I´m more thankful for the life I have and the things I´ve been blessed with.

On the bright side of things, I may have found a good location for the work to go. I´ve been out scouting locations, trying to find something just right. I saw a wall today in an area called Pelourinho. It´s the historic and touristy area. I would compare it to the old port in Montreal. Monday, we´ll go down to the place and see if we need permission to use it. Gaio and Leane are amazingly helpful. Without them, I don´t know what I would do. They help me find whatever I need. Like today, when we go out to find shelving, Gaio´s mom is going to drive us out to some big markets. They´re all awesome.

Once I have shelves set up, it can rain whenever it wants. Baby steps... I just want to finish one thing at a time. I´ll worry about the installation when I get there.

Tile painting in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:19:00 +0000

I am painting the design is sections of about 2 x 3 feet. This is basically just due to the size of the counter surface that I have to work on. Once the paint (edible sugar paints) are dry, I stack the tiles in another area.

Tile making in progress

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Our kitchen is a sugar-tile making factory! I need 216 tiles to complete my design. The overall dimensions are 6 feet x 9 feet. Plus, I´ll be doing a few tiny installations, and some warp in the drying... so I´ll be making about 230 in total.

Melt gelatin, add to sugar, mix, knead, roll, press, let dry.... repeat.

This is the view from our kitchen. The apartment is near the coast, facing the Bay of All Saint (A Baia de Todos as Santos)

Sugar, at last!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:56:00 +0000

I have finally located the mother land.... Hiper Bompreço. It´s the equivalent of Costco. I had been searching for icing sugar (açucar confeiteiro) practically since I arrived here. The first place had 2 bags. So I bought those. Then I looked in all the other grocery stores in the area and they had none. Sugar, oh yes. Copious amounts of sugar can be found. But no powdered sugar. Then, I found a large supermarket not far away. They had about 24 bags. I bought them all. And then I asked if they could order more (in my broken portuguese). I think I spoke to about five different people because everyone seemed to say, it´s not my department... ask someone else. I think I finally spoke to the right person, but I have no idea when more sugar will actually make it to their shelves. I have been returning there every day for the last 4 days, hoping to find the shelf restocked. But I´m confronted by that same lonely shelf day in and day out.

I finally decided to take a bus to another market, about 20 mintues away, hoping to buy out their stock as well. Oh, they had some alright. 2 bags. Only 2 bags. Did I mention that I need about 40 bags of this stuff? So then my friend Gaio suggested I go to another area, where there are 2 large supermarkets (one like a SuperStore and one like a Costco). The Superstore had 7 bags. I was happy to find some, but obviously, after a 1 hour bus ride I was hoping for a lot more.

And then, we struck gold. Hiper Bompreço. Not only do they have a lot, they have
1kg bags as opposed to the 500 gram bags. And they´re even cheaper. Can you sense my excitement? We couldn´t buy them at that moment because you need a membership card. But my friends mom has a card, so they´ll go back tomorrow to buy 20 kilos. I won´t even have to carry them home in my backpack by myself, they´ll effectually be delivered to my house! How sweet is that (oh, aren´t I punny!).

So the tile making machine will resume tomorrow. I hope to make another 110 in the next 3 days. Then, I can just work on painting them. I still haven´t found my location to install the mural. I went location scouting this morning and found a couple of interesting options but I don´t think I´ve found the ideal spot yet. I´ll know it when I see it.

Salvador, Brazil - Exhibition and installations

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:51:00 +0000

I am preparing for an exhibition here, as well as a large outdoor sugar mural. The show opens December 11 and in theory, the sugar installation will be installed by that date also. Let´s keep our fingers crossed on that one...
As I have been getting settled in and beginning my work, I am having a lot of realizations. Here are some of them:

1. I should have just brought my own damn rolling pin. They´re not as common here as I had thought.
2. I should have put in an advance order for about 60kg of icing sugar. I just bought 18 - 500g bags and that emptied the shelf at one of the biggest grocery stores in the area. And it was the only store I found that actually carries the stuff i need. Sugar - easy to find. Powdered sugar, for confection (they stuff I need) - not so easy to find. But find it, I shall.
3. Don´t eat left-over chicken when your fridge stopped working over night and you´re in a tropical country in 30degree celcius heat. Me tummy no likey.
4. If you build it (a sugar mural in your apartment), they will come (the roaches).
5. If you have a staring contest with a cockroach, it will win. He always does.
6. There really is no such thing as a bikini that´s too small. I´m still grappling with this one, but I think by next week, this proverb will become a reality.
7. It´s never too early to starting drinking beer at the beach. (i left that typo on purpose ´cause it seemed fitting).
8. Just because you get on a bus marked "Barra", doesn´t mean it´s actually going there.
9. Waiting for a bus at a bus stop isn´t enough. Apparently you also have to hail it if you want it to actually stop. Who knew.
10. In portuguese, Homer still says "Doh!"

Mosaic cake extravaganza!

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:15:00 +0000

This is a painted sugar-tile mosaic cake. Each "tile" was made of sugar fondant, hand-painted with edible colours, and then broken up and used to create a mosaic "table-top". The tile cutter (called nippers) are made from marzipan. It is all edible.
I was commissioned to make this cake for the 10-year anniversary party for Mosaika Art & Design in Montreal.

These are some details of the tiles before they were broken up:

Feature in the Montreal Serai

noreply@blogger.com (Shelley Miller) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:46:00 +0000

Some of my work has been featured in the recent edition of an online magazine called the Montreal Serai.

http://www.montrealserai.com/view_article.php?id=125