Detail from “Fertility Goddess’ Survival Kit” (2013).

Congratulations are due all over the place at Popps Packing—to the Popps Packing family on their new addition, Joseph, who is six weeks old and a living work of art, and to Lauren Rice, whose show of new work, “Tools for Better Living,” opened at the Popps Packing gallery on Saturday, October 26th.

“Escape Route” (2013), left.

Rice’s work is spare and highly textured (I overheard one attendee seriously petitioning the artist for permission to fondle the artwork), with sculptural configurations rendered in multiple media, including paper mache, sea shell arrangements, finely-wrought wooden boards, and living plants—two sets of recently split perennials that Rice characterized as sadly pining for their “missing half.”

Detail from “Pile (XO).”

Detail from “Pile (XO).”

The work was on one hand quite straightforward, with neat arrangements that provided handy meditations on the more abstract concept of “better living”—the promise of which is a staple of home/garden and lifestyle magazines, currently the ruling domain of paper mache projects, houseplants, and other bits of ephemera—such as coffee table books and scissors—that crop up throughout the exhibit, sometimes in a funky shroud of paper mache.

“Fertility Goddess’ Survival Kit” (2013).

One of the most intricate pieces, “Fertility Goddess’ Survival Kit,” involved a multitude of vaguely definable objects hung from a peg board by ball chain loops. The title suggests that these each have a clear purpose in the work of a fertility goddess, but the specific nature of each of these tools remains for the viewer to contemplate.

“The Course of Empire” (2013).

Another piece, “The Course of Empire,” juxtaposes a neat grid of seashells and several jars of homemade sour kraut, among other objects. As a tool is generally defined as having a particular use, perhaps we might use “Tools for Better Living” as an invitation to consider what these tools are, and what kind of better living process is facilitated by a seashell or a jar of sauerkraut… or maybe even the tools that surround each of us in our daily existence?

Rice (center right) lives and works in Detroit and Athens, Ohio, where she is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Ohio University.

Popps Packing: 12138 Saint Aubin, Hamtramck; poppspacking.org