S.F. Bay Guardian, 'Megan
Wilson' by Glen Helfand, March 3, 1999 Megan Wilson Loopy, Megan Wilson's impressive, labor-intensive installation, has an unexpected Goth appeal. To muse over notions of sex and a bit of madness, she's recruited the lost decorative art of quilling, an act that evokes shades of Victorian women's work. This antique, ladylike craft involves rolling and fluting narrow strips of paper and attaching them to a surface. The result looks something like extremely delicate cookie cutters or serpentine party streamers, only stiffer and more tightly wound. Wilson has covered the walls in obsessive arrangements of the stuff, in compositions that seem somewhat organic and highly sexualized. There are slitlike shapes that clearly suggest female genitalia. The winding strips of paper that surround them shoot out in various directions, suggesting spouting fountains. Sometimes the strips droop and dangle, like little things that have lost hold. Nearby is a wall studded with rivets that sport poufy tufts of fur. It's a hairy constellation that's creepy and playful at the same time. Wilson manages a fresh spin on using gender-based craft techniques to address feminist-based but ultimately universal psychological concerns. |