Jeanne Silverthorne on Pat Lasch
Artforum
December 1980
“Perhaps one of the reasons the new series of miniature cakes—without messages—comes off so well is that it retains that dichotomy. The white cake is the exposition, the black cake the commentary. The white cake is the party, the black cake the uninvited guest. The more specific reason for their success, however, is that they are still cakes. As such, they allow Lasch to indulge her virtuosity in formal matters without losing her audience; as Kay Larson says, why should a pastry tube ‘be any less sublime than bristles?’ They also allow the odd fetishistic touches—carefully arranged tufts of hair in the icing or excessively, almost antagonistically curled doilies at the base—to remain touches. They’re as unsettling as the moving object glimpsed out of the corner of your eye—though it depends on how much attention you’re willing to give the matter.” – Jeanne Silverthorne
