In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley wrote that we cannot anticipate the consequences of manipulating nature. With fabric, porcelain, branches and paint, Shannon Donovan does just that.
In the 18th century, clipped, geometric gardens and potted orange trees exemplified the aristocratic ideal of perfected natural beauty, as if to suggest that wild, dangerous and unpredictable nature had been subjugated by man. In the romantic 19th century, verdant woodlands, waterfalls and dramatic weather became objects of sentiment.
In Donovan's work, both attitudes are vivid though uneasy partners.
In the show's largest piece, Of Nature Made, found branches are arranged over wallpaper patterned with vines and dainty windblown purple flowers. Nature with a capital "N" is a pretty artifice; however, introducing fragments of the real thing, Donovan adds awkward, inexpressive natural branches. To these she attaches metallic-edged flowers. One layer of unnatural nature is superimposed on another. The unresolved character of the whole is pleasing and provocative — if one can come to terms with the inconsistency.
Donovan has worked primarily in clay, and it is still a dominant material for her. A second wall installation, Portraits, is a cluster of frames enclosing found elements, in which portraits and lace-imprinted ceramics make multilayered historical allusions to family and home. Luscious colors, exotic birds and crocodiles, flowers and needlepoint evoke the female domestic sphere and its narrow mirroring of the power of Mother Nature.
Most challenging, in terms of construction and resolution, is a group of wall-mounted, emphatically three-dimensional jagged branches with satellites of varying materials. The effect is simultaneously aggressive, forsaken and truly ambitious. Donovan is an artist to watch.
Shannon Donovan: Motifs | Through June 26, free, The Hall, InLiquid at the Crane Arts Building, 1400 N. American St., 215-235-3405, inliquid.org.
