Since childhood I have been fascinated by total whiteness–in interiors, architecture, artwork, and particularly by the all white buildings of Richard Meier. My father is an architect, and I grew up in an environment that obeyed the rules of modernism. However, other white-on-white things that were certainly outside the rules of modernism were also dazzling to a little girl—like the all white Christmas trees popular in the 70’s, and the mini-bride outfits worn by girls in my neighborhood at their first communions.
My paintings and prints are an attempt to combine these two concepts of what is beautiful about those objects. In my paintings I use a grid of squares as the organizing structure in which I place different close-ups of white objects that happen to be highly decorated–wedding dresses, wedding cakes, white flowers.
A related issue that has emerged from this project is my own attraction– and ambivalence– to the bridal industry. By combining the minimal and the highly embellished, I try to question the idea, widely accepted in our culture, that the highly decorative is necessarily “feminine.”
–Julia Jacquette
