Maryam Arslan tells a story of a kingdom far away
Our beliefs in destinies are nonchalant and lost in the best times. Yet we refuse to let it go; we work towards it enthusiastically, in modesty, completely silly, with everything we have in us. The story of Maryam Arslan’s rainbow frosted cupcake follows the footsteps of humans as unimpressed and internally unsatisfied beings living in histories and the futures.
Otherwise an inanimate object, the sparkling cupcake is infused with life: it knows how to break through restrictions, to confess, to hallucinate and to perceive a way studded with fragility, worries, fields, woods, distances and hopes. The cupcake tests its luck and exercises an imagination that knows no bounds. Rooted in fantasy, the cupcake and its world has no arbitrary laws. It is a perfect and unreal world governed by nothing and capable of everything. The rainbow frosted cupcake has felt sorrow and happiness, love and success. It is known to rise in situations, think of far-fetching ideas, and gain a lust for life by realizing its absence. The installation of this rainbow frosted cupcake participates in the concepts of generosity and salvation while falling between dimensions and acknowledging the demands of real and imagined, of white and black. The installation embodies a sense of madness: to jump off a cliff in the most poetic act of freedom and deny everything it is supposed to know. The cupcake reflects its creator in many ways: to extend oneself beyond decay and into the realms of trifling pleasure and uncomfortable sanity. The rainbow frosted cupcake broadcasts its monstrous and ridiculous spirit for advancement.
Maryam writes:
In a kingdom far, far away lived a rainbow cupcake. It was gold, rainbow frosted and sprinkled with
sparkle. It looked clean and pristine residing inside a canvas. It was having time of its life.
Until the day it wasn’t.
It yearned to look at the outside world. It sought to be seen from another perspective. It did not just
want to settle for the 2D life.
Curiosity then took the best of it.
And…
The rainbow cupcake once sat on a wall and eventually had a great, great fall.
The underlying human qualities make this rainbow frosted cupcake more than a treat. It has entered the reigns of the forbidden, discoveries, superstitions, the moments of dreams and critical investigations. It is a muse that delightful.
Image: Rainbow Swirl II, Maryam Arslan, acrylic, enamel, glitter and oil on canvas, all copyrights retained by the artist 2022.
