Sunday Dinner
by Bobbi Meier
Sunday Dinner is a family meal, usually served midday on Sunday after church and typically centered around some kind of roast meat. This definition of a Sunday dinner certainly represents the meal my family gathered around in the days of my childhood. Now, those times are embedded in my memories: adults at the dining room table and children seated in the kitchen – an arrangement we preferred (as sitting with the grown-ups was boring). Inevitably, there would be differences of opinions and clashes in personalities that we could hear from our little kitchen cafe.
Repurposed needlework portraits, sculptural objects of porcelain and fabric, and interrupted domestic furniture are juxtaposed in this domestically inspired installation. I use these materials as a foundation for the re- invention of the decor of my childhood home and as a reflection on the labors of my mother and grandmother.
Sunday Dinner emphasizes the fraught connections within our families, the things we choose to reveal and the things we don’t, our perceived flaws, the feelings we hide, and the thoughts that remain unspoken. Through aggressive and cathartic manipulation of domestic materials, I am expressing the complexity of lived experiences, the messiness of relationships, and the fragility of our bodies. My sculptural objects become repositories of memories and emotions.
A note from Emily Lindskoog, gallery director:
Welcome to the gallery, transformed into a Sunday Dinner feast through the arrangement of work by Bobbi Meier. Twelve guests from the Sunday Dinners series await your arrival. The unique personalities and attributes of these twelve invented family members are captured in abstract oval forms that could remind us of antique cameos or the ornate frame of an heirloom mirror. Every material is a pathway to a memory, from the needlepointed chair coverings given to Meier from a dear and gravely ill friend to the pantyhose that stretch to hold a rapidly changing teenage body. You may be reminded of your family members, eliciting your own wide range of feelings and memories. Greet them all as we move around the table, Centerpieces for Matriarchs.
In my own family, after someone blessed the meal, my grandmother’s shrill voice cut through the silence, “And bless the hands that made it!!” As startling as it was, she demanded we also consider the invisible labor and planning behind everything visible. Here, you are invited to do the same. Enjoy the work of Bobbi Meier, the long threads that have led us here and now, and the opportunity we have to gather and fill our cups.

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Tags: Albany Park, Bobbi Meier, Bobbi Meier: Sunday Dinner, Carlson Tower Gallery, Chicago, North Park University, Sunday Dinner