"No, it is not only our fate but our business to lose innocence, and once we have lost that, it is futile to attempt a picnic in Eden." -- Elizabeth Bowen
A Picnic in Eden was a two-person collaboration between Bettina Hubby and Abel Baker Gutierrez. Exploring the idea of how we preserve the memory of lost innocence, Hubby fashioned accessories/adornments that Gutierrez photographed young people wearing. Round ‘jewelry’ boxes, deigned and made by Piper Olf, housed them with Abel’s photographs mounted on top underneath round curved glass. The objects were displayed as part of an exhibition at The Company Gallery called "A Picnic in Eden."
Hubby approached Gutierrez because his work is rooted in the tensions of understanding shifting aspects of identity associated with youth, and therefore the models were chosen who exude a quality of agelessness, gender-neutral beauty, and were able to reveal a momentary glimpse into the edge of lost innocence. The accessories can be categorized as unisex, and are made from labels, silk flowers, beads and magnets, making new functions/contexts for each.
With Eden being the undercurrent for the cross-section of the work, an installation was created in the gallery that exuded a similar feeling and some of the models were invited to come wearing the accessories that embodied that spirit.
