ACCI Gallery is proud to present a whimsical, food-themed installation of an entirely new form of mixed-media art by artist, silversmith, and culinary historian Carolyn Tillie (b. 1964, California). Mixed Emotions, a Culinary Art Installation showcases a literal outpouring of words paired with objects used in cooking and dining. Reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp’s “found objects,” embellished by Pop Art wordplay, and Dada’s delightful irreverence, the culinary vessels and utensils themselves seem to speak, announcing their purpose, and trumpeting to the audience their function, their place in the kitchen, and in the world.  

One of the tragedies of the pandemic is a surfeit of abandoned kitchen items inherited by family members of those they lost. A friend gifted Carolyn with a copy of the 1909 edition of the White House Cookbook: A Comprehensive Cyclopedia, as well as several vintage utensils. Wishing to honor her grandmother, who had owned and used this cookbook, and invoking the nostalgia of mothers and grandmothers who had once expressed their love through their culinary offerings, Carolyn began the meditative act of physically cutting out descriptive words from the old cookbook. She then creatively applied those words to implements befitting them: butter knives, a beater, a rolling pin, and more. Soon an entire place setting had been created with witty dialogue between written words and the corresponding physical objects, earning Carolyn a place in a group exhibit curated by the Women’s Caucus for Art.  

A year into the pandemic, as the art series continued to expand, she authored a paper for Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies entitled: “Mixed Emotions: Cutting and Pasting through Loss, Detritus, and Forced Isolation During COVID-19,” (Fall, 2021). Elements of repetition augment each item’s function. The “cream” from a sterling creamer overflows and descends, like a waterfall that forms a pool of words on the table. “Chop”, “Mix”, “Butter”: words label, but also instruct. The dynamic avalanches of words in Carolyn’s art objects serve as counterpoint to the static containment forced by COVID: fewer interactions, fewer words. With the cookbook words applied to antique silver, there is an invocation to an earlier era and a desire for conversations with loved ones who owned and used such kitchenware, of recipes passed down through families, of meals prepared and shared – or meals we wish we could have shared – especially with those lost to us during the pandemic. 

Now, that single place setting has grown into a full installation of over a hundred pieces comprising an entire dinner party for four and sideboard, complete with scrumptious foodstuffs and service ware, as well as a line of jewelry crafted by Carolyn in her studio: actual cutlery handles fashioned into earrings and necklaces, similarly festooned with the same words from vintage cookbooks, cut and applied and invoking the memory of a splendid meal with those we love and loved.