Alexis Iammarino's Glaze of Glory

A while back I was honored to have a small drawing included in HOLE HISTORY SHOW III, in Portland, Maine. Hole History is created and curated by Alexis Iammarino, an interdisciplinary artist who is community minded. Hole History started in 2014 when Iammarino heard “that the hole-in-the-donut was singularly invented by a 19th-century sea captain, Hanson Crockett Gregory from Rockport, Maine.”* It’s been a jumping off point for artists to think about truth, story, history, and anything and everything that donuts might bring together. 

 

Installation Shot of Hole History III, courtesy of Alexis Iammarino.

The open call invited a range of submissions: visual art, writing, culinary and family histories, critical perspectives on racial injustice, presentations, models for roadside monuments, and recipes. Looking over the formats accepted was enough to send my head spinning; I had never thought this much about the implications of donuts. It’s sort of silly, but as I thought about donuts in my childhood and adult life, I was surprised to find myself getting emotional. I hadn’t realized what a signifier donuts have been for me throughout the years.

 

Installation Shot of Hole History III, courtesy of Alexis Iammarino.

 

If I had more time before the submission deadline I would have loved to research the relationship of Vietnamese families to donut stores, to interview my aunt who worked at a donut shop, to interview local owners of donut stores here in town. I’d like to talk to my friends in Oregon about the types of donuts they have available versus the ones here in the South. I’d like to research the origins of the donut, run pseudo-scientific experiments on just why donut holes are the most amazing thing EVER, and I’d like to write about the gentrification of the donut and about fry breads.

 

My contribution to Hole History III: Sunday School, featuring non-dairy creamer. Ink on bristol. 11"x14". 2022

It would be easy to take something like this (thinking about a food and it’s cultural implications and history) and make it exclusive to one artist, or to take it to an inaccessible academic level. I think artists taking a common or lowbrow object like food and elevating it to a level of snootiness or smugness is what a lot of people hate about art. When it’s done that way, it’s laughable in its earnestness and because that kind of work is so insulated, it’s like hearing that one drunk guy go on and on about his hot take on donuts. The brilliance of Hole History is that Iammarino keeps her vision open. It’s about what everyone can bring to the table, a collective history. Everyone’s had a donut. Serious research and fun accessible ideas for roadside monuments share the same space.

 

Press photo outtake for Hole History taken by Scott Sell. Image taken from Instagram.

 Years before the first Hole History, amazing artist and illustrator Emily Martinka and her husband created a poetry book for a school’s Donut Day complete with illustrations. My spouse and I have been talking for ages about working together on a donut zine. Sites like Racist Sandwich have been exploring cultural relationships with food for a long time. Food as a creative catalyst is not new, but what is refreshing about Iammarino’s Hole History is that she turns an individual experience around a simple donut into a larger group connection.

 

An excerpt from Donut Day. Illustration by Emily Martinka. Image courtesy of Emily Martinka.

*from Creative Portland