San Francisco based artist Alexandra Steele, in her own words, is "obsessed with ruins and disaster aftermath, essentially decrepitude and what happens with the loss of control." Her idea of aftermath and decrepitude tend to be entertainment for the masses. Take her latest show "Missed Connections", where she places the white Bengal tigers of Siegfried and Roy fame against the backdrop of the overgrown grounds of Grey Gardens, with:
"Wild tigers are juxtaposed with Big Edie and Little Edie (the Beales) of Grey Gardens, relating their territorial instincts and untamed nature. In hued, apocalyptic imagery, white bengal tigers from Sigfried & Roy's tiger habitat at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas remain dominant of their once enclosed territory. The work demonstrates a pull between domestication and innate wildness, and the fall from riches to ruins. The relationships of the characters to their environs evolve into an absurd situation where the Beales become as wild as their home and the white tigers transition into feral beings."
Yeah, I was pretty much sold when I first was introduced to Alexandra's work, but when she sent me the above explanation of her work that accompanied her latest show I was beyond intrigued. How could you not be? At the moment Alexandra has no website. But I'll keep you posted when she does, in the meantime she's working on a drawing of Blanche's bedroom from the Golden Girls.
