Maura Bendett at Roberts and Tilton

Art in America, Dec, 2005 by Constance Mallinson

Maura Bendett's materially seductive sculptures subscribe to what could be called a "post-nature" attitude of representing nature through wholly cultural or artificial imagery. Synthetic and reconstituted, this is nature consumed and commodified for a contemporary life increasingly devoid of an authentic experience of the natural world.

Unapologetically decorative and crafty, these seven pieces(all 2005) suggest wall-hung, bejeweled baroque chandeliers. The curly black starburst-shaped wire armatures are bedecked with cartoonish appropriations from nature in a wide vocabulary of fanciful shapes and surfaces--whimsical mod flowers rimmed in spirals and swirls, colorful triangular thorns, floppy mushrooms, tiny chromatic clear resin pods and seeds, shiny glass fruit baubles, pendulous beaded filaments mimicking rain or dew dripping from branches. The initial effect is that of Tim Burton gone Goth with a bead kit. Noctilucent White Drops, the most dense and layered of these mini-landscapes, draws from a repertoire of atomic age and '60s floral motifs as well as the sort of underwater coral and ocean life one might find in a souvenir water globe from Sea World. Luminous metallic enamels, luxurious velvety textures and glistening wet polymers bathe every facet with an ersatz luster. Fashionable, sensuous, exotic, this art pleasurably struts its stuff and charms us with its wiles.

But another possibility lurks beneath these luscious, fanciful forms. The sculptures, evoking heavily encrusted Victorian funereal objects with their dark filigree, also serve as melancholic, nostalgic emblems of the "death" of nature. Saving these artworks from promiscuously substituting glitz to fill the void of that loss, however, are the small glass eyeballs embedded in each sculpture. They impart the uncomfortable effect of being observed--returning our gaze to our natural bodies, where we might contemplate what we have surrendered so readily to such exquisite artifice.