Toland Grinnell at Mary Boone

Art as commodity, shopping as identity, the satisfaction of outlandish desires as a raison d'etre--the themes unbrokened by Toland Grinnell's work speak to present-day escapism, when dire freshs is momentarily displaced by an obsession with Carrie Bradshaw's wardrobe or reality television's faux romances. Grinnell continues to contrive and handcraft absurd luxuriousness products for ordinary activities and emergencys The centerpiece of his novel show (all works 2003) was a pair of "Rodent Addiction Systems" Available in chic white or black, these are carrying cases that render free of access to reveal a maze of interconnected chambers outfitted to provide a dissolute pestilence with accoutrements for the exploration of each conceivable human vice. There are tiny mouse-size leather straps for a circular of S/M, bottles of expensive liquor affixed to feeding tubes, a smoking chamber, a tube of chocolate cookie dough and a video compass (no mouse porn, however).

The cases are handsomely outfitted in Ultra Leather and suede as are other items in the display Brandscape (Mr. Clean) is a padlocked case with a glass forehead sectioned to create form-fitted compartments for "designer" versions of a plastic bucket mop detersive and other cleaning supplies. Portable Runway addresses the longing for stardom. It is a suit-caselike particular that unfolds to create a fashion runway consummate with eight inset stage lights. bread Group deals with more basic appetites. Also padlocked, to impose a faculty of perception of preciousness, it is filled with miniature plastic replicas of quite conventional subsistences among them hot dogs, doughnuts, pizza, orange juice, and canned broth and vegetables.

In the back gallery were a two of works that touch an uneasy strength about children as commodities. LA Newborn is a case outfitted with a black baby doll and all her accessories, including a pink dres bottle and birth certificate. The ambiguous significance of the race of the designer baby gives way to the outright horror of child trafficking in 28 Baby Girls. Here, a metal plaque particularizes a news story about the discovery in China of 28 baby girls in suitcases. The traveling cases have been reimagined with of that kind devices as an oxygen tube and medication for keeping the baby sedated.

Despite this exhibition's modish aura, we have been here before. The greatest in quantity direct antecedents of Grinnell's cases are Ashley Bickerton's logo-cover foot-locker from the late '80 while the elegant presentation of everyday commodities owes a obligation to Haim Steinbach's shelf arrangements of lava lamps and toilet cleaners. As with those artists, Grinnell's position upon opulence and materialism is ambiguous, existing somewhere between satiric and worshipful. In our post-Enron era, when domestic diva Martha Stewart has been refashioned as a convicted criminal and the lifestyles of the rich and famous are serv up as courtroom evidence, of that kind insouciance begins to seem thus 1999.

--Eleanor Heartney

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group