Toland Grinnell at Mary Boone

Art in America, May, 2004 by Eleanor Heartney

Art as commodity, shopping as identity, the satisfaction of outlandish desires as a raison d'etre--the themes sounded by Toland Grinnell's work speak to present-day escapism, when dire news is momentarily displaced by an obsession with Carrie Bradshaw's wardrobe or reality television's faux romances. Grinnell continues to contrive and handcraft absurd luxury products for ordinary activities and needs. The centerpiece of his recent show (all works 2003) was a pair of "Rodent Addiction Systems." Available in chic white or black, these are carrying cases that open to reveal a maze of interconnected chambers outfitted to provide a dissolute pest with accoutrements for the exploration of every conceivable human vice. There are tiny mouse-size leather straps for a round of S/M, bottles of expensive liquor affixed to feeding tubes, a smoking chamber, a tube of chocolate cookie dough and a video room (no mouse porn, however).

The cases are handsomely outfitted in Ultra Leather and suede, as are other items in the show. Brandscape (Mr. Clean) is a padlocked case with a glass front sectioned to create form-fitted compartments for "designer" versions of a plastic bucket, mop, detergent and other cleaning supplies. Portable Runway addresses the longing for stardom. It is a suit-caselike object that unfolds to create a fashion runway complete with eight inset stage lights. Food Group deals with more basic appetites. Also padlocked, to impose a sense of preciousness, it is filled with miniature plastic replicas of quite conventional foods, among them hot dogs, doughnuts, pizza, orange juice, and canned soup and vegetables.

In the back gallery were a couple of works that touch an uneasy nerve about children as commodities. LA Newborn is a case outfitted with a black baby doll and all her accessories, including a pink dress, bottle and birth certificate. The ambiguous significance of the race of the designer baby gives way to the outright horror of child trafficking in 28 Baby Girls. Here, a metal plaque recounts a news story about the discovery in China of 28 baby girls in suitcases. The traveling cases have been reimagined with such devices as an oxygen tube and medication for keeping the baby sedated.

Despite this exhibition's modish aura, we have been here before. The most direct antecedents of Grinnell's cases are Ashley Bickerton's logo-covered foot-lockers from the late '80s, while the elegant presentation of everyday commodities owes a debt to Haim Steinbach's shelf arrangements of lava lamps and toilet cleaners. As with those artists, Grinnell's position on opulence and materialism is ambiguous, existing somewhere between satiric and worshipful. In our post-Enron era, when domestic diva Martha Stewart has been refashioned as a convicted felon, and the lifestyles of the rich and famous are served up as courtroom evidence, such insouciance begins to seem so 1999.

--Eleanor Heartney