Ebony G. Patterson’s “Dead Treez” at MAD

“There is a challenge being made about seeing and looking. The seeing is what happens on social media, but the looking is what I’m asking you to do,” said Patterson, asking viewers to look beyond the spectacle and to be “aware” of the deeper issues.

The main focal point of the exhibition is Swag Swag Krew, an installation of 10 elaborately dressed and decorated mannequins, sets up the challenge of “seeing and looking” as Patterson described. The gallery is filled with equally elaborate floor tapestries that attract the eye with glitter and costume jewelry, and then move attention toward the issues of being on the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.

An extension of the exhibit, …buried again to carry on growing, in MAD’s Tiffany Gallery, Patterson uses her collage techniques to mix with the gallery’s jewelry to create a terrarium-like installation that accessorizes the themes of “Dead Treez,” on view through April 3, 2016.