Lisa Hoke’s title for her latest show, “Attention Shoppers,” is fitting given that the works are cobbled out of packaging and other consumer detritus: coffee cups, matchbooks, pasta boxes, candy wrappers and beer cans. They’ve been flattened, folded, cut and aggregated into objects that follow their own internal logic.
Products are massed according to color, transforming disposable crap into compositions with panache. In Aisle 3, freestanding and wall-mounted forms join together in an ensemble of greens and blues, the latter made from empty coffee sacks and rigatoni cartons. Swaths of red and yellow cardboard, covered in logos for Coke and Oh Henry! bars, swell and swirl in Coming Attractions.
Aside from the work itself, Hoke seems to offer the suggestion that we’d be better served by diverting our endless waste stream into art instead of letting it pile up in landfills. While the point is more idealistic than practical, Hoke’s assemblages offer a visceral measure of just how much junk we consume while admitting its eye-candy appeal.—Jennifer Coates