Artist Lola Brooks presents her solo exhibition, [_story of the eye: a subculture of ornamental oddities_](https://siennapatti.com/project/lola-brooks-2021/)_,_ at Sienna Patti Contemporary, open now. Brooks work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Art and Design, her designs are also owned by celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Florence Welch, and Angelina Jolie. The whimsical jewelry pieces within this exhibition feature antique and vintage blown glass doll eyes, antique coral roses, and mid-century shell cameos.
_story of the eye: a subculture of ornamental oddities_ is on view at Sienna Patti Contemporary through May 23. _Flaunt_ had the opportunity to chat with Brooks about the inspiration and process behind the artist’s enthralling new exhibition.
**What is the inspiration for _story of the eye: a subculture of ornamental oddities_?**
This particular body of work is very much a reaction to my experience of living in this cultural moment. I began making it back in the month or so leading up to my current state of sequester, which is now enjoying its first anniversary. There is no doubt that we find ourselves living in strange times. We have become steeped in the illogical, the absurd, the surreal; the current set of emojis on my phone do not begin to cover it. And so, these pieces reflect my state of mind, and the culture as it has unfurled around me, and while I see them as being somewhat dark and disconcerting, they are also ridiculous. Such strange creatures as these, where mouths become wounds become vaginas, butterflies are bows, and diamond tears have taken billions of years to form and be wept.
**The pieces within the exhibition feature eyes, what is the meaning behind the eyes in this context?**
In addition to the having a long and fascinating historical tradition both within and without the format of jewelry, I think the psychological impact of the eye when presented out of its usual embodied context is profound. Eyes are the windows of the soul, offering protection, offering solace, offering humor, offering love, demanding accountability. To be held by someone’s gaze, to truly see and be seen, to give of one’s self, to be vulnerable, to communicate beyond words, the eyes contain the intimate possibility of all of these things.
**What is the message this exhibition hopes to convey?**
I think of myself as a storyteller, spinning tales through my jewelry that I hope reach deeply into each of us. With this work I am appropriating my usual sentimental clichés and feeding them through the cultural shorthand of emoji, begging us to reconsider their depth and power while celebrating the ridiculous and paradoxical nature of our current daily existence. I want this work to engage with people in ways that invite us to think beyond the object itself and into our shared, lived experience, digging into both the discomfort and the awe and wonder of being alive.
**What does the process of creating a piece look like?**
Each piece is fabricated out of stainless steel chain, which is wrapped around a core made of a specific type of plaster. Hundreds of tiny, individual chips of 14k gold solder are then flowed in between every link of chain, essentially freezing it to itself. In doing so, the chain loses all of its inherent flexibility and becomes a solid dimensional form. Once this is achieved, the inner core can be removed by dissolving the plaster in water without compromising the structural integrity of the remaining empty chain shell. The hollow forms are then faceted, which blurs the distinction of the chain’s structure, and fractures the play of light across the surface of the piece. The facial features of each piece are then culled from various bits of studio detritus that I have collected over the years, depending upon the mood or ideas that my mind is generating at any given moment. These may include antique and vintage blown glass doll eyes, antique coral roses, leaves, or natural coral branch formations, diamonds, mid-century shell cameos, or little gold fancies I have fabricated and tossed into a dish of possibilities.
**The pieces feature bits of studio detritus that you have collected over the years, how do you collect/select these items?**
I have been a collector of bits and pieces in one form or another my entire life, constantly teetering right on that razor’s edge between being a collector and becoming a hoarder. The range of things is broad, everything from vintage plaid pantsuits, to needlepoint handbags, vintage wallets sets, antique gutta percha chains, potted meat food product, carved ivory roses, and vintage doll eyes, to name just a few of my obsessions. I am not always sure what I will do with the things that I collect, but for some reason an object will feel like something that I need to take with me. Sometimes these things will sit for years before I realize why I got them in the first place. I find a certain sort of comfort in having many of something, it assuages my anxieties about loss. When I become obsessed with something I will search for it everywhere, flea markets, junk stores, ebay, estate sales. I also collect small sets of drawers, which come in handy for storing and organizing all of it.
**What is the importance/significance of creating art that can be worn, such as jewelry?**
Jewelry’s symbiotic relationship to the body, creates the possibility of an inherent entanglement rooted deeply within our psyche. The right piece of jewelry can wrap itself around our sense of ourselves, becoming inextricable from who we are in the world, all the while communicating to the people around us. It can function as a surrogate, the powerful symbolic embodiment of a love in its absence. The sensual experience of wearing a piece of jewelry can bypass the already over privileged sense of sight offering the emotional potential of centering us in the intimate physical pleasure of existing in these bodies. All of these things make jewelry incredibly rich territory to explore art and ideas.
**The pieces have a sort of whimsy to their design, what inspires the playfulness that your art displays?**
Generally, I am obsessed with desire and death, and all the love and beauty and horror that comes between, because these things are real. But amidst it all, it is laughter who will keep us on our feet. I know this for sure.
**What is something you try to achieve with every piece you create?**
I think of myself as a story teller, spinning tales through my jewelry that I hope reach into each of us. In this theatre of the absurd, I have appropriated my usual sentimental clichés and fed them through the cultural shorthand of emoji, begging the viewer or wearer to reconsider their depth and power while celebrating the ridiculous and paradoxical nature of our current daily existence. I want this work to engage with people in ways that ask us to think beyond the object itself and into our shared, lived experience.
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