Set!

[osprey_archer]

Set! is about competitive tablescaping, or, more specifically, about the yearly table-setting contest at the Orange County Fair. I thought that this might be a speed contest (how many tables can each contestant set accurately in five minutes! or whatever), but in fact it's an aesthetic contest: each contestant designs an extremely fancy table, as you might do for, say, a themed birthday party, except in this case this table is going to have absolutely no use at all except to be judged at the fair.

I can't entirely tell if the documentary was making fun of this pastime or if I personally, despite my best attempts to keep an open mind, was bringing the mockery in my heart. Several contestants earnestly explain that they are expressing themselves CREATIVELY and it's ART, but I just couldn't quite get behind spending six months designing an extremely fancy decorated table that no one is ever going to eat at, and in many cases no one would WANT to eat at, as for instance the table by the woman who is like, "The theme this year is international travel, which made me think of my safari in Africa, which made me think of poachers, so I am going to use many specimens from my taxidermy collection! Including a monkey over whose shoulder I will sling a pistol, because my theme is the REVENGE OF THE ANIMALS against the poachers. The table will be scattered with bullets and I will write the menu in blood."

(She does not ultimately write the menu in blood.)

In a previous year, she designed a New Year's table with little taxidermy mice sitting on the plates guzzling from tiny champagne bottles, and a taxidermy monkey in a top hat sitting atop a very tall centerpiece as a sort of ringmaster for the whole thing. WHO is going to want to eat a meal when there are TAXIDERMY MICE on the plates?

To be honest, I am puzzled why that particular contestant has decided that tablescaping is her metier, when is seems so obvious that she considers herself above the other contestants. "I don't want to be that bitch who walks around making catty comments about the other contestants' tables," she says, and then she does exactly that, including an extended spiel about the table put together by the unemployed guy who spent literally his last dollar completing his table. "I overheard him say that he bought his plates at the Dollar Store," she scoffs. "Maybe next year he should put a bit more effort in."

Upon reflection I think the fact that she feels above all the other contestants IS the appeal. It's also probably nice to tell herself that if she doesn't get a ribbon, it's because the judges were simply too bourgeois to get it.

There's also a woman who keeps all her tables on display year round in a special Table Room, which has run out of space, so at the end of the documentary the new table goes at the foot of the bed in the master bedroom (her husband gazes on resignedly). And then you've got the two women who hire a male belly dancer to dance when their waterobics class came to the table unveiling... actually they were great, I loved them and their entire waterobics class. They can stay. It's nice they've found a hobby they enjoy, I guess! I just don't understand... why... that one.

Comments

[kore]

In a previous year, she designed a New Year's table with little taxidermy mice sitting on the plates guzzling from tiny champagne bottles, and a taxidermy monkey in a top hat sitting atop a very tall centerpiece as a sort of ringmaster for the whole thing. WHO is going to want to eat a meal when there are TAXIDERMY MICE on the plates?

Jesus God

Is she actually taking inspiration from the horrible Victorian craze for taxidermied animal parties or is it just a terrible coincidence?

[osprey_archer]

I don't know, but my gut feeling is that this woman is the kind of person who would never admit to taking inspiration from anyone as bourgeois as the Victorians.

There was also a bit where her husband was talking about how gross the mice were, and she was all, well the mice were originally slated to be snake food, and instead they got to be part of an art installation! If I were a mouse I know which one I'd choose...

[kore]

"Would I be part of the Circle of Life or STUFFED AND ON DISPLAY FOR DECADES," no kidding!

[slashmarks]

Wait, so the taxidermy is all her personal taxidermy work? That she does especially for the tables?

[osprey_archer]

I'm not entirely clear about this! She might have a taxidermy lab in the basement, but she might also just work with taxidermists to make sure that the taxidermy mice end up in the right position to guzzle a bottle of champagne.

[sovay]

the table put together by the unemployed guy who spent literally his last dollar completing his table.

How did he do?!

[osprey_archer]

Let's see. The prize information was coming thick and fast then so I'm a little vague on the details, but I think he got an honorable mention.

[littlerhymes]

This is all so astonishing. I know... it's just a hobby... BUT WHAT GOES ON. Please don't make me imagine eating dinner next to a taxidermied mouse. 😭

[osprey_archer]

RIGHT? Isn't that a horrifying image? "No one would want to eat at this table with the mice and the LOOMING MONKEY, 0/100."

[luzula]

To be honest, I am puzzled why that particular contestant has decided that tablescaping is her metier

It sounds like her calling is taxidermy? But maybe that is just a means to an end for her.

When I was a kid, my dad worked at a museum for a while and sometimes went to so-called "skinning parties" where one skinned birds for future use in taxidermy. But the bird skins were not part of the table decorations...

[osprey_archer]

I'm not sure if she personally taxidermies these animals or if she just collects taxidermied animals! I really feel that what she wants in life is to be out there making shocking sculptures for the Guggenheim and instead she's making shocking tables for the Orange County Fair.

[asakiyume]

But even so: if not actually doing the taxidermy, then taxidermy appreciation, you know? And then the table setting is a way for her to express her taxidermy appreciation.

[osprey_archer]

To be honest I feel like "taxidermy mice running around a table" is the LEAST appealing way one could possibly share one's taxidermy appreciation, as many people will be unable to get over the whole MICE ON THE TABLE thing.

Although upon reflection, I'm not sure what would be the best way to express taxidermy appreciation to invite taxidermy-doubters in? Many people just find it off-putting and I'm not sure what art arrangement would change that. Hmm. A quandary!

[asakiyume]

I'm giggling because taxidermy doubtful is reminding me of Vaccine Hesitant, and I'm remembering an op ed piece I saw recently that was distinguishing vaccine hesitant from vaccine resistant, and I'm thinking about whether similarly there are the taxidermy doubtful folks but then the much harder to persuade taxidermy resistant folks.

... And probably no, mice on the table is not going to win the battle for hearts and minds. There are few animals one actually wants on the table with one--the spoiled-brat princess in the The Frog Prince (original fairy story, not Walt Disney version) had a point with that.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I definitely had that terminology in mind! The taxidermy hesitant are a large group indeed... although there are clearly plenty of folks who are simply taxidermy NOPE.

[asakiyume]

This is what I came here to day, but I figured someone else might have beaten me to the punch and indeed, here you are!

[anna_wing]

Students in the hotel industry also have competitive bed-scape design, which is quite similar in concept, except with origami towels. This is the scatter-of-rose-petals-on-the-sheet taken to the nth degree, and is actually rather fun. Many are very clever. I still remember on with origami dinosaurs made out of green towels, which were delightful.

My guru, the late, lamented Marjorie Hollis, in her second great book, "Orchids On A Budget", has a whole section on ways to create pretty table arrangements(and interior decoration generally) with the cheapest possible materials, including things from the 1930s equivalent of the Dollar Store (or in my own context, Dashio).

[osprey_archer]

I can see how someone would get into a hobby like competitive bed-scaping if they worked in the hotel industry, or indeed tablescaping if they worked in catering (in fact the judges in this competition are caterers), or why someone would want to create beautiful tables for actual dinner parties that they are actually going to have. It's spending sometimes hundreds of dollars on a table that no one will ever eat at that made me balk.

[anna_wing]

Is it any different from spending a lot of money on producing any other kind of art for fun, rather than sale, though? It's a creative outlet too.

[osprey_archer]

I mean, sure, theoretically, but the documentary does not go out of its way to convince anybody.