Nikki Starz

STATS:
“I started decorating cakes about four years ago because I needed money and wanted to make it by doing something somewhat creative. Currently, I work at the Highland Bakery, I’m 22 years old and a sculpture student at Kennesaw State University. I have been drawing and making things since I was a kid. Cake isn’t my outlet for art; the medium just suited the concept. I also work in clay, metal, plaster. I like to use a material when it fits a certain concept.” —Nikki Starz

Steaks, Cakes and Cadavers: Nikki Starz

Dashboard/Courtney Hammond: What is your over all concept when it comes to this particular series of work?

Nikki Starz: First, I wanted to compare cakes to the Rococo period of art. During the Rococo period the aristocracy wanted art made about their frivolous, care-free lifestyles; it was about over-the-top decadence, having enough wealth to be able to spend it on nothing. During my experience as a destitute art student I’ve worked part time for almost four years making cake. Through this experience I’ve realized how silly cakes are, and that cake is our contemporary rococo. There are some people here in Atlanta that spend $5,000 or more on a birthday cake. And it isn’t just our aristocracy, it’s our middle class too. People spending money they don’t have on shit they don’t need that will be eaten to boot!

Secondly, I wanted to question whether art was cake or cake was art. Are they the same,  similar or totally opposite? This is why I used cake materials instead of making a plaster, clay, or metal sculpture. I did it because I wanted people to question why I did it. For me personally I think art should question something.

Finally, I wanted this work to be ridiculous and over-the-top. I wanted to make something absurd. After learning so much about art history, I’ve decided that I think it’s a rather silly thing. I love and hate that about it, simultaneously. I can’t not make art, it’s simply what I exist to do. I have an obsession with making things with my hands and right now I want to make absurd things because art is silly. Some people take art so very seriously; they believe certain art is art, and certain art is not art at all. But because art is so subjective, it doesn’t really matter anyway.

Dash: Can you describe your process? I know my cakes don’t look like this.

NS: To make these pieces, I used styrofoam or rice crispies. It’s really just a matter of carving the form and then overlaying the fondant, and then sculpting details in the fondant. It’s kind of tricky. The fondant has a set time and can be fragile. I currently work at the Highland Bakery in Atlanta, I learned everything about fondant from Karen Portaleo who is the head sugar artist there, she is fantastic.

Dash: How do you turn icing black instead of grey…I can never figure this out.

NS: Sometimes you can cheat by using chocolate icing and adding black food coloring. The color of the chocolate gets you closer to the black. But if you don’t want to use chocolate you’ve just got to add a lot of color.

Dash: Were you inspired by Aunt Fay’s armadillo cake in Steel Magnolias? Don’t lie, we all were. “Nuthin’ like a good piece a’ ass.”

NS: Actually, I’ve never seen Steel Magnolias! It’s on my movie list, I just haven’t gotten to it yet. What really got me started with using cake as a medium was when I made the steak cake for a friend of mine. I had such a good time making it, I realized as I made it I felt the same excitement I did when I worked on a drawing or a sculpture. I started to question what it was at that point, was it art or was it cake? Does my excitement actually change the reality of what it is?

Dash: If you had one piece of advice to give as an artist what would it be?

NS: I never really feel like I have the credentials to give advice, all I can say is never stop learning, questioning and challenging yourself.