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Cake

(Oil on Canvas 42” x 30” 2019)

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Cake illustrates a downward view of two male figures taken from the highest point at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. The large slabs of glazed concrete seem to resemble a dusty rose icing base. The circular architecture of the planetarium is perhaps a second tier, and the structural pillars almost animate the image of three candles. The men appear as if they are figurines atop a wedding cake — their likeness to two cake toppers dismantles a ceremonial symbol of marriage once charged with heteronormative tenet. The men exude a casual presence, dressed in ‘athleisure,’ as they motion forward. Their casual fashion brings attention to the zeitgeist of trend culture present in the setting of this particular place and time.

Fascinated by the surface quality of images, Sayed considers the alluring base of a painting to be one of the various points for a viewer to enter a work for a query of deeper meaning to occur. The painter Wayne Thiebaud [click here to see the work Display Cakes (1963)], and his images of doughy desserts are a reference for Sayed, in particular, when it comes to the work Cake and the aesthetic of its delicate facade, and haloed colour. According to Sayed, Thiebaud’s works “have a particular quality of composition and surface image.” They draw you in, so much so that they almost look good enough to eat. Beyond the fact that Thiebaud’s paintings are of actual confections, their aesthetic allure is perhaps referentially decorative as well.

The decorative image or decorative object, throughout art history, has been classified as a purely aesthetic form of art. This is a likely outdated opinion now because the intersection of art and design is recognizable — decorative objects are known to operate aesthetically, conceptually, and functionally. Yet, the idea of decorative imagery still seems to be faced with the criticism that its media lacks critical substance and meaning. The director Sofia Coppola and her films are frequently critiqued for their “feminine aesthetic,” and “decorative mise-en-scene.” Film theorist Anna Backman Rogers argues this with resistance. She says, “Coppola, almost uniquely, takes the decorative surface of the image as a matter of high seriousness by addressing not only the problematics of ‘pretty’ as it is culturally conceived (even examining Hollywood masculine prototypes), but also as a way to directly reach questions of gendered identity”.¹

Sayed’s work functions similarly to how Backman Roger’s categorizes Coppola’s films. With a focus on surface allure, Sayed’s work explores the ability of the decorative image — the image that has been prepared, slowly constructed, colourfully composed, edited, and beautifully ornamented. His work — alluring at the base, and yet richly layered with concept –– calls forth a form of visual politics that aims to generate contemplation, commentary, and critique of societal norms and contemporary culture.

Perhaps we encounter decorative images every day, almost constantly, through visual and social media. They are those images that are seen at first glance as aesthetic blocks — pictures of landscapes, architecture, food, fonts, faces, and products — but, we know that these pictures are the active slices of information that fortify our contemporary understanding of communication. The agency of social media (and all the interfaces that live alongside it) allows individuals of all sorts to create decorative images as a means to push forward a message. They provide the ability to speak, contemplate, and manifest change on a personal and communal level. Whether this communication is seen as positive or not, the decoration of contemporary visual culture has the allure to powerfully transform social understanding.

¹ Backman Rogers, Anna. “Introduction: The Surface of the Image Is Political.” Introduction. Sofia Coppola The Politics of Visual Pleasure, 1-22. New York: Berghahn Books, 2019, pg. 20.

Winter 2021

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