In this exhibition of sculpture, digital images and installed elements, artist Aasta Deth combines domestic imagery with personal allegory. Tasseled pillows encase various parts of a demurely posed female in Deth’s digital images. She is muffled, constrained, concealed and yet, given the body language, seems accepting of it. The question then becomes how much of her situation is of her own making. Deth again uses pillow imagery in one of the most immediately satisfying pieces of the show, Bolster. A gigantic serpent of brocade coiled in the center of the gallery dominates the space and the viewer’s imagination. It is both mischievously inviting (wouldn’t it be fun to jump right in) and a little ominous. 

Bolster is just the beginning. There is discordant imagery throughout; spinal shapes are cut from the vinyl of a chair, gloved hands protrude from a wall, a video monitor is installed in the cushion of a chair. There are many things to indulge in, from fabrics to human skin. Deth’s combining of domestic imagery and body imagery blur the boundaries between the physical and the psychological and result in an intriguing conversation about self. But Deth’s sense of the absurd prevents things from getting too cynical. Domesticated is an enjoyable exhibition which encourages us to consider the potential of the personal spaces and emotional places in which we exist.