Several years ago, I received a call for submissions to a show called MISUSE.  The show wanted to explore the premise of reverse functionality, and invited artists to take recognizable objects and give them contradictory meanings.

I came up with the idea of making a mosaic cake using shards of glass, ceramic and tile.  The cake features a large Capodimonte rose resting on a bed of porcelain doll hands, each slightly varied in color.  A small plastic toy soldier holding a gun stands on top, and toy letters spell out “Bring Me Home”.  The viewer is attracted to the cake as a familiar item most often associated with joy, comfort, and celebration.  Upon closer inspection, one  realizes that these cakes are not meant to celebrate, but to mourn. The domestic becomes exotic, the benign, political. 

The common ingredient in all of them is a visual narrative that draws attention to serious issues:  endangered wildlife, climate change, political follies, and war - to name a few.