MICHAEL HUEY: CHINA CUPBOARD and HOUSEGUESTS

 

CHINA CUPBOARD and HOUSEGUESTS complete two reversible covers and contents of one book and span a lifetime of small histories for the artist Michael Huey. Published in conjunction with a recent show at Newman Popiashvili Gallery, NYC, Huey sets out to present two sides of two coins bound together by proximity and purpose. The HOUSEGUESTS half of the book was an exhibition that took place in rooms of the 1820's Schloss Damtschach. In the exhibition the photographs of American interiors function as house guests of the villa and of the exhibition - the interior within an interior. 


CHINA CUPBOARD collates and collects interior views of cupboards stacked with china. Each cupboard a vitrine dedicated to abundance and limitation, to memory and relationships. In the US the television program "Hoarding" depicts the extreme side, the sickness, of collecting or stockpiling. Middle aged people fear death by avalanche of doll collections or being crushed by stuffed cats and newspapers. It can be almost unbearable to watch and weigh the meaning of accumulation this way. Contrastingly, Huey's beautifully colored photographs linger on the other end of that spectrum. His work shows carefully tended objects, the comfort of having and preserving like things together or the loneliness and fragility of missing, neglected or miss-placed objects. The origin of the objects and people who placed them there never seem far from the photographs, these china portraits.

www.MichaelHuey.com