Don't be a Show Off: Criticizing Materialism through Art

"Bride" by Beth Lipman
Courtesy of cadetompkins.com

In 2012, The North Carolina Museum of Art acquired “Bride”, the ten foot tall sculpture envisioned and created by Wisconsin based sculptor and photographer, Beth Lipman. After many days of deconstructing and transporting the many hundreds of pieces from its former home, the sculpture now bookends a hallway in the museum’s modern and contemporary art section. An artist well versed in sculpture and glass art, Lipman always uses the artistic style of glass sculpturing to represent some criticism of human social behaviors and tendencies. “Bride” is a very intriguing piece both in its construction as well as in its significance. This piece presents a larger debate on the topic of materialism whilst making immense use of symbolism to exhibit social critiques. In “Bride”, Beth Lipman blends the contemporary style of glass sculpturing with elements of the realism and still life movements by creating a still life in an oversized, three dimensional form by using an elaborate display of glass objects and a theme of a bride and marriage to symbolize and specifically protest the idea of excess and materiality in individuals.

Firstly, Lipman's medium of choice is integral to understanding the significance of her work. Lipman's “Bride” is a fascinating piece in and of itself just within its physical attributes, structurally and compositionally, and is a very striking piece mostly because it intentionally comes off as grand and deliberately excessive. The hundreds of glass pieces, all original and handcrafted by Lipman, stand on a shining high gloss wood stand just shy of ten feet in height. This "wood tower" is comprised of five layers, large at the bottom and becoming progressively smaller as the sculpture climbs, much like a wedding cake, hence the name of the piece “Bride”. The glass bowls, goblets, glasses, candlestick holders, and many other forms of glassware that sit upon these platforms are placed in a way that is paramount to understanding the meaning of this piece. The objects are arranged in such a way that, on the top platform, the pieces are all perfectly organized, intact, small, and incredibly detailed and, as your gaze descends, you’ll notice how the glass pieces become more and more disorganized and their condition goes from flawless, to partially chipped and shattered, towards the bottom.

This still life by Claude Monet would be a
perfect example of a traditional still life.
Courtesy of Petrus Agricola (Flickr)

Additionally, Beth Lipman’s artistic niche is, for her enormous and complex glass sculptures, alongside utilizing her handmade glass in her sculpture, derives from still life paintings from as early as the 16th century. The history of this art form is quite expansive and complex to say the least, but notable artists who posthumously are revered for their still life work include Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Traditional still life usually features meticulously chosen everyday, inanimate items as modes of symbolism, usually representing wealth or power. For example, many artists of this school of thought depicted silverware, flowers, glassware, or fruit. In this way, the items they chose were inherently material and somewhat flamboyant at their core. They are symbols of elegance and these items are not necessarily owned for their utilitarian attributes. Similarly, throughout the history of still life paintings, you’ll find that the art form has religious roots, especially in the context of materialism. Many religious still life artists stress the importance of material and tangible goods arguing that one should be focused on being connected with their spirituality and less so with physical assets. Conversely, modern still life has since evolved from this and most still life artists, if they are protesting excessiveness, as Lipman does, they highlight the facade and shallowness that is inherent with those who only make actions for show or only possess certain items for the social status symbol associated with owning them.

In “Bride”, Beth Lipman combines her work with sculpture with the classic still life style to present the same idea, but in a three-dimensional form. In many ways, she can express her criticism of excessiveness more clearly with sculpture than she could with a more typical oil painting. For example, because a sculpture is inherently a tangible, physical, three-dimensional entity, the piece stands out to you, demanding your attention, more so than a painting would. In other words, Lipman’s whole artistic mindset is to create symbolic still lives in a three dimensional context. Her work, as a non-traditional form of still life, supports the idea that the traditional meaning behind still life and realism transcends any artistic medium.

This social critique of excessiveness and materialism in “Bride” is consistent with the Dutch and French still life paintings of the 1500s and onward. These still life masterpieces were in the context of the artistic style of Realism, a conduit for various forms of expression whereby everyday and “realistic” items or people are portrayed in a realistic way - an art where nothing is dramatized or over-glorified. An essay by Peter Demetz titled “Defense of Dutch Painting and the Theory of Realism” corroborates this assessment as it describes in great detail the effects of still life, specifically in the context of realism, its importance in society, and how it relates to still life paintings. The essay focuses mostly on the glorifying of realism, however its art section is quite relevant since it shows how still lives and realism are essentially codependent on each other. A part of realism includes the criticism of materialism that goes much deeper than simply collecting elegant material items. Most versions of materialism, and definitely Lipman’s perspective, would argue that materialism extends to non-tangible objects like success and wealth, which fit the bridal and marriage theme of “Bride”. An example of this in Lipman's work would be “Bride’s” shape. Constructed like a wedding cake, “Bride” uses that likeness as a parallel to wealth and power since wedding cakes were originally a socio-economic status symbol and were exclusively a luxury item.

Along with the wedding cake reference, specifically what makes “Bride” radiate themes of excessiveness, wealth, and materiality is the glassware. The ten feet that the sculpture stands at allows for hundreds of glass pieces to be featured, thereby allowing Lipman to use this as a way to express the concept of excessiveness, obviously, a heavily criticized human attribute in this piece. She emphasizes this by utilizing the tiered effect in “Bride”, where the pieces are more broken the lower they are on the sculpture, which can be interpreted as the veil that materialism and excess inherently creates. At a glance, on the top and surface everything, looks perfect, but as you look closer, you notice how everything is less than such. Look closer than that and you’ll notice certain objects are completely shattered, all a symbolic anecdote for the lack of depth in the life of someone who would choose to live a life of material. Artfully crafted glass pieces are made for the sole purpose of being for show and for their elegance. “Bride” doesn’t simply protest the possession of elegant items as some sort of a status symbol, rather the glassware and other fashionable and sophisticated items are used to symbolize a greater critique and conversation about materialism and the lack of emphasis on interpersonal experiences.

Many of Lipman’s previous works, such as “Laid (Time-)Table with Cycads”, to name just one, have been explicitly said to be social critiques of materiality of society and the excesses that plague us. “Bride” differs from her typical social critique in the way that “Bride” is is meant to be about a specific individual and a society at the same time. As referenced in an interview, she briefly mentioned how “Bride” was created specifically with the intention of being reminiscent of “the individual”. This would make sense considering the context of which “Bride” is set in. A wedding is symbolic of the joining of two people, whereas just the image of a bride is symbolic of a singular person. Again, selfishness doesn’t immediately come to mind, but if you think about the definition of the word “bride”, it is a singular term. A bride is a symbol of power, jealousy, wealth, and fortune, and weddings themselves are synonymous with excessiveness and doing things for show. In this way, “Bride” is a physical embodiment of the materialistic and excessive tendencies that everyone has within them.

Another point of interest, and something I think is a specific choice by Lipman, was the decision to leave “Bride” particularly ambiguous. The connection between her glass sculpture masterpiece and materialism is apparent, however the piece lacks a sort of historical or era specific context. This is done on purpose to make “Bride” applicable in a variety of contexts by not citing a particular context. This piece differs in this way from her other creations since they don’t really have an individual and personal connection and are completely wholly societal critiques. It is this ambiguity that is what is so significant about “Bride”. The sculpture demands your attention, forcing you to be almost overwhelmed by its intricacies, which can only be experienced seeing it in person. The piece radiates excessiveness and it becomes abundantly apparent that it is being protested. Although, it becomes difficult to put your finger on who or whom “Bride” protests, something I believe, after much consideration, was an intentional choice made by Beth Lipman, and probably the overarching factor as to why this piece is so unbelievably intriguing.

It is the combination of the artistic style still life, the philosophical ideas of still life, the philosophical ideas of realism, and modern sculpture that brings “Bride” to life. Lipman found a way to intertwine the aesthetic and cultural significance in a way that they are interdependent on one another in order to present her protest of materialism and excessiveness. Had she chosen a different medium, her message would not have been nearly as clear and the piece, had it been an oil painting, wouldn’t have particularly stood out. “Bride” grabs your attention, hence why I was interested in it. But after some thought, I now realize that the medium carries the significance of “Bride”, and it is for that reason “Bride” presents such a meaningful and interesting social critique of materialism within society and ourselves.

Works Cited

Peter Demetz, “Defense of Dutch Painting and the Theory of Realism,” Comparative Literature 15. No. 2. (1968) pp. 97-115. (accessed November 14th, 2015)

Museum of Modern Art. "What is Modern Art." MoMa.org. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/what-is-modern-art (accessed November 10th, 2015)

Glass Art Society. "About the Glass Art Society." GlassArt.org. http://www.glassart.org/about.html
(accessed November 14th, 2015)

Essential Humanities. "Modern Sculpture." Essential-Humanities.net. http://www.essential-humanities.net/western-art/sculpture/modern/ (accessed November 14th, 2015)

Beth Lipman. "News." BethLipman.com. http://www.bethlipman.com/news/ (accessed November 10th, 2015)

North Carolina Museum of Art. Entire Site. ncartmuseum.org. http://ncartmuseum.org (accessed November 10th, 2015)

Time Trips. "Still Life: A History" TimeTrips.co.uk http://www.timetrips.co.uk/still_life_history.htm (accessed November 14th, 2015)

Drishti Magazine. "Wedding Cakes" DrishtiMagazine.com http://drishtimagazine.com/wedding-cakes/ (accessed November 14th, 2015)