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Allison Baker doesn’t hesitate to compare her artwork to the interior of a ‘90s Taco Bell. As the artist and educator sees it, the Mexican fast-food chain’s dining room represents a “very particular intersection of class and aesthetic,” and encapsulates the tone she is always striving for in her work.

“It’s like when you think about the cartoons from the ‘90s, they were super gross,” said Baker, who lives in Minneapolis. “They were really cute and sort of twee, but disgusting and kind of vile.”

That aesthetic is on full display in Baker’s latest exhibit, “Laundry / Landscapes,” which is currently showing at Syracuse University’s Random Access Gallery through Friday. It’s a combination of large “soft sculpture” pieces constructed out of various fabrics, and a series of paper collages made from a material called Color-aid.

Brett Morgan, a Master of Fine Arts student and adjunct faculty in ceramics, curated the exhibit and began curating work for Random Access Gallery in early 2020. The show can be viewed as a commentary on the pandemic, even though the exhibit has been in the works for over a year. Morgan first saw Baker’s art on Instagram, and immediately found it to be eye-catching due to the color palette and variety of textures and materials. He then reached out in the hopes of bringing her work to Syracuse.

“As we live so much on the screen now, I’m so desperate to see texture or material and even in the two-dimensional collages there’s so much to look at,” Morgan said.

Baker is a sculptor by trade. She received her bachelor’s in fine arts from Indiana University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She now teaches as an associate professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. But she recently found herself working in 2D and utilized this skill for the bulk of “Laundry / Landscapes,” which consists of 156 multicolor collages arranged on a grid across one of the gallery’s walls.

The artist began working on the collages as an “easier way to sketch and think about things” before moving into the more time-consuming sculptures. Both the collages and the sculptures depict household objects –– clothes, furniture, garden tools, a television –– as well as more abstract shapes and designs.

Morgan curated a specific space in the exhibit with art that looks like utensils and tools, so the space would look like a tool closet or pantry. Chenze Chen | Contributing Photographer

When seen together, the pieces comment on “the cycles of cleaning, caregiving and labor” Baker said, which is a theme that has long been a focus of her work. It also explores the idea that our domestic spaces aren’t as safe as we might think, which has become more interesting to her since COVID-19.

“I think of (the collages) as almost like little petri dishes, like little specimen samples,” Baker said. “And sort of everything in your home can become suspect or dangerous in a way. There’s the latent possibility for danger.”

Because Baker couldn’t travel to Syracuse for the show, she gave Morgan free reign to design the exhibit. The two interacted mostly over email, and Baker shipped all of the art in three boxes from Minneapolis to Syracuse –– she was never more nervous putting something in the mail since those boxes represented two years worth of work.

For his part, Morgan was particularly interested in showcasing the collages as a sort of “stained glass window,” with the idea that each piece became its own little portal, he said.

The main space includes sculptures that depict clothing and a scene that looks like an oil spill and is meant to resemble a living room or bedroom. A separate, smaller area features a few collages and sculptures that resemble tools or utensils. Morgan intended that space to be seen as a tool closet or pantry.

He was particularly interested in highlighting the tension between the “fantasy” and the “post-apocalyptic” that is present in Baker’s work –– but Morgan also finds Baker’s art to be inspiring because of how it embraces the present moment in a positive way.

“Everyone needs a little color, to kind of brighten your day,” Morgan said. “There’s also a lot of: What will the future look like? And I think with Allison’s work there’s so much for us to think about.”

SU freshman Celine Wang visited the exhibit and said that the artwork reminded her of the Adult Swim hit show “Rick and Morty.” Chenze Chen | Contributing Photographer

At the gallery last Friday night, SU freshmen Sophie Durmowicz and Celine Wang spent almost an hour looking at the collages and sculptures.

Wang said the work reminded her of the Adult Swim hit show “Rick and Morty” and that she would love to frame one of the collages and put it in her home.

“They’re so colorful and eye-catching,” said Durmowicz.

“I love it. I think it’s so fun,” Wang added. “It kind of leads you into another reality.”

For Morgan and Random Access Gallery –– which provides graduate students with space to practice their work –– that’s the perfect response. With these exhibits, Morgan aims to allow artists in Syracuse to see what artists in other communities are working on.

For Baker, collaborating with Morgan, even remotely, was fantastic, she said. Baker always has a hard time when it comes to designing how her own exhibits should look, so having a curator like Morgan is especially important.

“I cannot thank Brett enough,” Baker said. “He’s been so kind, and generous and helpful. Y’all have something very special going on there, and I’m just happy to be involved.”

Published on March 9, 2021 at 9:45 pm