Cacophony of Domestic Angst

Installation view, Domestic Bliss
 

By AMANDA WALL March 15, 2025

The title, Domestic Bliss, sets the tone for a sarcastic teen perspective as memory. Alexander Berggruen, a young Upper East Side gallery in New York, with a fresh perspective, just announced the representation of Stephanie H. Shih, congruent with her first solo exhibition with the gallery. 

Clever is Shih’s ability to interpret parental angst through the lens of a 90s adolescent. Her own more demure flashbacks are expressed through works so symbolic of relatable 90s grunge angst. Evidence was most obvious in reinventing Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill album next to a pack of Camels. Shih’s criticism of her parents' coping strategies, illustrated through random household items, is so characteristic of an observant teenager that internalizes. Provocative is the reflective sarcasm of the adult artist. Even more endearing, is the tender craftsmanship of each ceramic piece without replicating the perfect symmetry of a commercial container. Shih is suggesting the influence of advertising and branding promoting the use of toxic products and unhealthy habits more culturally accepted in the decade of internal darkness. This was the era that conjured the expression, heroine chic. The carefully hand painted text on ceramic packaging entices, like a window into domestic situations not fully explained.  

Such a detail is crucial in reminding us that you are looking at art. I hate to continue to bring up Warhol but so many roads lead back to the master. In Warhol’s defense about his Campbell’s soup paintings, Warhol said,  “You just take something very ordinary, and this is going to be the end thing and it is just gonna take off like a rocket”. The Warholian ability to tell a story while remaining vague, is Shih’s hook. I was hooked. I wanted to have a laugh with the artist. She took me back in a whirl of my own mixed emotions and traumas. The show triggers how our capitalist society manipulates the consumption of unhealthy products and habits that prey on our insecurities. The cultural pressure for women to be beautiful and thin and juggle work and family spawned the quick fix problems: fast food and microwavable meals, ridiculous celebrity endorsed exercise equipment, the cliff notes for a divorce and the lost marital spark that leads to reading a romance novel through the muck of the domestic mundane. The romance novel on the ironing board was a gripping example of the blurred lines between fantasy and reality. This is maternal angst existing alongside a young generation confused with simplified gender norms and the breakdown of traditional concepts of marriage. 

Installation view, Domestic Bliss

Shih’s use of ceramics as material pushes even further an alternate interpretation of domesticity. Ancient ceramic vessels were created for domestic use as a container, some more skillfully made or adorned existing as a symbol of decorative elevated status. Shih isn’t trying to deliver a Ming vase, but rather, skillfully reinterpreting commercial products encouraging capitalism and commercialism, so associated with American culture. Shih brings to our attention what was lying around the house in the 80s and 90s to understand what was happening, especially for women. She reminds us of the unrealistic pressure to be heroine chic thin, beautiful enough for Fabio on the cover of a romance novel, and by the way, you also need to be financially independent and work outside of the home. No wonder fast processed foods and quick fix exercise schemes were mass produced and consumed. This third-wave feminism created confusion for men and marriages in general. The self help bookshelf was the most emotionally striking installation including: Women Who Love Too Much, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, and Divorce For Dummies. Divorce For Dummies was written by John Ventura, a consumer and bankruptcy attorney. A male bankruptcy attorney giving advice about how to get a divorce, is hilarious. Sometimes, I think artists are silent comedians and the dark humor is lost on the casual reader. Shih’s dark items of American obsessions, mirror the fragility of domestic life, and insecurities forced on women and teens through consumerism and a male dominated society. The empathy for mothers from the teen perspective is felt. At the gallery, I thought about how, as a teen, I didn’t want to fall for the hype of impossible beauty standards or a Cinderella love story. I thought education and moving to New York would save me from self-destructive behavior. To my younger naive self, toxic American brainwashing is a tough dragon to slay. 

The self-destructive diets, the eating disorders, processed food, and exercise toys that ended up in dusty storage are sadly, American teen memories. I recall the idolization of Princess Diana. She was the personification of the flaws with society/celebrity worship and yet overcame the control of the royal family to emerge as a humanitarian hero. As a teenager, my grandmother was a domestic goddess and she bought one of those rebounder trampolines to stay thin. That tiny trampoline, cast aside, was reimagined by the grandkids as the literal catapult into the lake. Now that I am a mother, I can imagine my sons making fun of my romance novel on the ironing board. They would probably zing me about my sexual deprivation with their sarcastic genes, inherited from their parents. We would all crack up and that would be the end of it. In contrast, Shih waits until she is an adult artist to express her love and concern through her ceramics practice. These works express the concern, sarcasm and love of a teen for her mother. A love conquers message, the mood is tragic, healing and endearing. 

Enjoy this exciting life moment and continue creating art for yourself. Sophisticated early work, has the twinkle of invention and charm that will never dim. WM