Mixed media installation, 2021
Exibition views FLUCA, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

When in 1933 Donn Beach served his first of many highly elaborate rum cocktails in an old tailor shop in Hollywood, decorated with crusty décor from his travels, not only was the very first Tiki cocktail born, but also the notion of Polynesian Pop as a style of interiors became popular. It wouldn’t take long before bars like “Don’s Beachcomber” were spread all over the world, just as it wouldn’t take too many decades more until they had disappeared again; too complicated and fuzzy for a new generation that preferred pre-packaged sour mixes and pre-juiced lemons with long shelf lives and too old school for a crowd that didn’t need to dream so much about the places Tiki promised but who could actually travel there.

The cocktail “revolution” of the early 2000s finally also made its way into the rediscovery of the complex recipes of Tiki, and with the bar world newly embracing the old flavors came the rather stunning and strange embrace of those Old Hollywood exotifying Polynesian Pop décor. 

The exhibition “Paved Paradise” by Austrian artist and cocktail enthusiast Gabriele Edlbauer is highlighting the cracks in the façade of Tiki and asking questions that the movement would much rather have swept under a colorfully woven straw rug.