Tiffany Boddeker's "In The Pink"

From February 12-16, the R.W. Witt Gallery at Sacramento state hosted In The Pink, a show of sculptural works from my fellow Sacramento State student, Tiffany Boddeker.

Boddeker creates sculptures that are both delightful and disturbing. The works playfully combine soft materials like string and pantyhose with rougher materials like planks of wood and metal strips or wire. The result is often strange, presenting uncomfortable forms, with bulging tumor-like shapes, fleshy colors and strange textures that sometimes resemble insects or bodily growths.

The first thing I saw walking into the show was the little bug-like creatures that scattered to my left. Resembling little globs of mud that sprouted spindly wire legs, they had an animated feeling to them In their poses; one was even caught in the act of what appeared to be climbing the wall. They were creepy, like an infestation of spiders, yet strangely adorable.

Continuing into the gallery, I was faced with the larger works in the show. One piece hung from the ceiling like sausages in a butcher shop, and it very much resembled sausage as well, though not one anyone would want to eat. They were a see through, gray and pink tinted material stuffed with something- perhaps paper shreds- and hung in long tubes that tied together in lumpy knots in some areas. Threads ran on the inside, resembling veins. 

Another was like a big, lumpy pink caterpillar, propped over  pieces of wood that seemed to stick out like large splinters. Slumped as if in pain, the poor thing even had band-aids stuck on it. A few of the other works had this sense of pain as well, like the bulgy mass that appeared to wear a tight strip of metal almost as if it was a corset, or the long, hair-like piece, colored red and pink like an infection, that sprouted from a dirty old pillow one might find on the street.

Despite all this discomforting imagery, these works were still very fun to look at. They command the room with their unapologetic presence and play to the perverse fascination with the disgusting that many of us probably had as children and may or may not have grown out of. There was also something fascinating about the emotional sense of the works. Though usually detached from the form of a creature, their biological qualities made me sort of feel pity for them, as if I was empathizing with their grossness and pain. These works were truly fantastic to stir up such odd feelings were it might feel like they don't belong.