Buns In the Oven is not a found object or vintage appliance, it is a hand fabricated sculpture made to look like a manufactured appliance. The reality is that our society values manufactured objects to create an identity in our consumer society.
The broiler drawer below oven opens as a trundle bed with white on white embroidered sheet and pillows. This appliance sculpture is constructed from multiple layers and fabricated structure in copper with a painted finish.
Buns in the Oven has a romantic table top setting as the stove top.
There is a silverplated candelabra which I fabricated, and two burners that represent the plates on the table. There are two sterling silver forks, knives and spoons.
Below the romantic table setting is a garbage disposal in the right oven.
I was petrified of the romantic trap of relationships that did not guarantee the full potential of the woman in the relationship.
The burner element in the bottom of the oven says: "The Project Birth." A reference to “The Birth Project” by Judy Chicago that was in progress at the time. When I saw this project in Benicia, while working on this sculpture, I was very disappointed. Judy Chicago had many women volunteer to be part of the fabrication, mostly needlework, but they were still like the anonymous women of history. In some ways, it seems way too close to the anonymous cloistered nuns of another era that did embroidery. In addition, birth as an image and metaphor in “The Birth Project” seemed very negative with images and titles like ”tear.” I somehow thought that birth could have a message of more positive origins like rebirth, renewal, sustenance, regeneration, as just a few examples of many possibilities.
Look at the lower left corner of the photo where the stove says: Georgia O'Keeffe. This is a reference to both Georgia O’Keefe and a vintage O’Keefe and Merritt stove.
On the back of Buns in the Oven, the pierced lettering says: "INFIDELITY TRUST AND SAVINGS." This refers to many things, but the most important is how important I think it is for women to have their own money so they aren't destitute if they get divorced. It was also inspired by small savings banks that were given away for free in the early days of appliances for women to save money, one coin at a time, for a new stove.
Notice the small doors have a symbolic reference to a Georgia O'Keeffe painting of clouds.
Remember this is modeled after the styling of an O’Keeffe and Merritt stove.
The left oven door opens to reveal a constructed image of the cross (reference to a Georgia O'Keefe painting) and the martyrdom that I see some women adopt in their marital role.
Visual inspiration behind Buns in the Oven
I used to study mid-20th century women’s magazines to understand the expectations of a women’s role in society. I did not exactly copy these images for stove burners for Buns in the Oven, but used the images to inform aesthetic decisions about what an electric burner may look like when I also want it to present as a dinner plate.
Notice in the photo (above) the burners on this stove. It looks a lot like the burners on Buns in the Oven. I love looking at this advertisement from a mid-20th century women’s magazine. Look how it romanticizes the domestic role. It occurs to me that the burners in the back of the stove is a safety feature as the child is reaching over the top, front edge of the stove (without getting burnt.) For a cook this would be a nightmare as one big pot would cover the utility of the burner next to it. A man must have thought up this idea.
“The art of gracious living” included a table set with silver fork, knife and spoon. This photo came from a Delineator Home Recipe book.