You Can Have Your Cake Vault and Eat it Never

This is the Cake Vault, a sickly sweet-looking piece of cake art created by artist Scott Hove that isn't as innocent as it looks at first glance. And as much as you want to, you can't eat it. The Vault is made from acrylic media, paint, wood, and cardboard. You'd still like to bite it just a bit, and maybe lick it once thought, wouldn't you? Well, I would, if no one was looking.

So what's it about? From the Cakeland Artist Statement:

Cakeland is a sculptural installation resembling a collection of perfect delicious cakes-- wall mounted, hanging and standing-- a walk-through cake environment complete with its own lighting.  It is a sweet refuge, an endless kaleidoscopic landscape of cake, a respite from the grinding realities of the outside world.

The sculptures have all of the appeal of the best cake you have ever tasted, but can never be eaten.  Whereas the nature of edible cake is fleeting, lasting only as long as the brief celebration it was made for, these cakes last as long as the artist or society have the wherewithal to preserve them, in order that they remain a place of pilgrimage, a seemingly idyllic oasis.

"Being such a place of beauty, Cakeland requires that it be equipped with its own defense, because the reality of beauty and perfection is that people want to possess it. So for their own protection, the sculptures and installations have evolved strategically placed sharp teeth and horns. Without this aggressive aspect-- call it the anti-cake-- the beauty is vulnerable, transitory, and not to be respected. Cakeland represents a temporary defence against time, a place where you can always go to celebrate and experience the ephemeral essence of life":

 

  

 

And I found this on the Hove's website, it appears he also makes tasty feet. There was no artist statement but I think we may be able to come up with a meaning on our own:

 If you want to take a virtual tour of the Cake Vault you can do so on High Fructose - just click the image to get to it:

Source: Boing Boing

Comments

[WendyB]

I'm hypnotized by this! The only thing better would be a room made of Cadbury.

[Wicked Halo]

That's a whole lot of cake :) looks yummy indeed!

[the projectivist]

jeepers!

i wouldn't turn down a pair of those shoes though.

[alexandra keller]

yummy! good thing it's not edible

[Denise @ Swelle]

Alex - you read it! It certainly is NOT edible, and that's the whole point of the piece. I won't hold it against the others who didn't realise, though. We've got a lot of blogs to browse in a day!

Denise ♥

[mary jane]

wowowowowowow! that is the COOLEST! that would be sooooo hard not to try and sneak a piece if it WAS real!
xoxox
mary jane