At the heart of Crafting Romance are the conceptual objects and
installations by featured artist Vadis Turner.

Note: Subsequent to this exhibition, Reception, a large installation piece of a similar nature to those shown in this exhibit, was purchased by the  Brooklyn Museum of Art for their  Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. (The site for her concurrent exhibit at Lyons Wier Gallery in NYC 2009 has better images of the piece.)

The Brooklyn-based artist draws attention to the ways in which contemporary women craft their own highly mediated, biologically enhanced bodies and identities: jeweled objects made from birth-control pills, false eyelashes created from slivers of her own diplomas, a box of faux chocolates made out of
pantyhose and cotton-balls and a pristine wedding cake sculpted out of
tampons. Following suit, this exhibition includes a mix of international,
regional and local artists who investigate our culture’s romance with
romance, taking on everything from the public pomp and ceremony of
weddings to our private fetishes.

Just as Turner transforms the meaning of commonplace objects and environments, Cindy Hinant ‘s telephone sculptures live up to their title, “The Ecstasy of Communication,” by playing with a suggestive visual language familiar from a time when we all had landlines. Her bright, pastel-colored telephones--which look more fisher-price than functional--cuddle and embrace as if inspired by the terminology of ‘three-way calling,’ ‘*69,’ even ‘call-waiting.’ Hinant will also contribute a pair of mesmerizing drawings and install a site-specific wall of thousands of commercially-produced stickers, that also comments on long-distance relationships.