On the Dot

On the Dot

On the Dot

MARCH 2002

“For On the Dot, Jen Talbot’s solo exhibition at Raleigh’s LUMP gallery, the Chicago-based artist has transformed the gallery into a Target (anti)ad, amusing viewers while simultaneously challenging the status quo. The result is one of the tightest shows I’ve seen in terms of design, color, concept, execution and installation.

Two 9-foot red bulls-eyes are painted on opposite walls of the gallery. Two women–UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate art students Lauren Adams and Leigh Suggs–are harnessed and suspended directly in front of the targets’ centers. Dressed in white protective jumpsuits, metal armatures of hoopskirts covered in white felt and red pom-poms, black swimming goggles, and Talbot’s signature red and white striped tights, the women each hold long fiberglass retractable poles with soft cloth swabs on the ends. One woman paints the other woman’s face with thick white frosting, while the frosted woman, looking like someone has thrown a cream pie in her face, cleans the other woman’s face with water. As they each dip their swabbed poles in small aluminum troughs of water and frosting, they hover, wriggle, and struggle to reach each other’s faces without losing control. When the washed woman is clean, she covers her own face in frosting with her hand.”

Excerpt from INDY by 


Lump is located at 505 S. Blount St, Raleigh, NC. More information about our mission and exhibition programs can be found at lumpprojects.org.