Still lives

Object 4: The object of excess

Blurring heavenly and secular representations of the emotional excesses of heady, romantic love and hot 'n' sweaty lust, Liza Hallam presents a wall tableau celebrating St. Valentine's Day. Alter-piece meets point-of-sale display in Beware of Imitations, an eclectic assemblage of tinsel, glitter, Glomesh, and paste jewels, and printed matter ranging from school-girl comics to fireworks packaging and holy cards. The instantly recognizable symbol of Valentine's Day - the stylised heart - forms the central motif to structure the work.

Hallam interrogates our logo-obsessed society to draw parallels between religious and commodity worship. Mary, as Holy Mother, looks on as a cut-out from a comic which presents an episode in the life of another Mary, a teenage school girl, who negotiates the pitfalls of adolescence. Glitter, sequins and tinsel connect commercial embellishments of love and lust, and the pain of teenage romance, with the sacred heart of Our Lady and the grief of the Mother of Christ. While Hallam's work is not didactic in its intent - its visual excess ensures it never preaches - it does pose the question of how it may be possible to find a 'true' love, of self or other, in today's logo and object saturated world. And like production designer Catherine Martin's play on brand recognition within Baz Luhrmann's film Romeo + Juliet, Hallam employs objects as excess, as false gods, to question a world where objects have become a stand-in for human relationships and intrinsic self-worth.

• Al Munro
• From the catalogue essay Of lives and objects still
• March 2004

• Liza Hallam
• Beware of Imitation 2004
• Recycled cardboard, wallpaper, fireworks packaging, story book, Easter egg foil, Glomesh, darts, beads, tinsel, paste gems, glitter, collected objects and holy cards

• Liza Hallam
• Beware of Imitation (Detail) 2004

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