ROCHELLE GOLDBERG: Psychomachia@
Miguel Abreu Gallery, 88 Eldridge Street88 Eldridge Street
New York, NY 10002
USA
MARCH 6 − AUGUST 22, 2020
installation views
Great Gardener Makes, 2020
sourdough bread, coins, and glass bowl
4 1/2 x 10 x 10 inches (11.4 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Great Gardener Makes, 2020 [detail]
Gatekeeper, 2020
bronze, eyeshadow
46 3/4 x 10 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches (118.7 x 26.4 x 24.1 cm)
Gatekeeper, 2020 [detail]
Halo: She wouldn’t turn out the lights, 2020
wild lilies, bronze powder, graphite, shellac on cardboard
24 x 24 x 1 1/2 inches (61 x 61 x 3.8 cm)
Hand with pennies, 2020
bronze and coins
7 3/4 x 2 1/8 x 3 3/4 inches (19.5 x 5.5 x 9.5 cm)
Bread, 2020
bronze
42 1/2 x 6 3/4 x 11 inches (108 x 17.1 x 27.9 cm)
Bread, 2020 [detail]
Halo: watch it go, 2020
bronze powder, graphite, shellac and polyester glitter on cardboard
24 x 24 x 1 1/2 inches (61 x 61 x 3.8 cm)
The Life and Death of Mary, 2020
pastel, gouache, acrylic, and silkscreen ink on magazine paper
nine prints, each: 14 1/2 x 11 inches (36.8 x 27.9 cm)
framed, each: 18 5/8 x 14 1/8 x 1 1/2 inches (47.3 x 35.9 x 3.8 cm)
installation dimensions variable
1. Mary of Egypt, still in Alexandria, during a moment of ongoing civil strife and power struggles within the diocese, contemplates both the governing forces and models of leadership which surround her. It’s not that she would or could find herself reflected, because it was a polarizing moment between hardline paganism and devout spirituality, but more to the point, she desired a tolerant climate that would sustain the freedom she had found as a weaver, spinning both flax and thought autonomously from the moral law of her time.
2. Mary makes her way to the holy land, by sea, and by all accounts a pleasurable journey.
3. Mary arrives at the temple of Mary the Mother, following the other pilgrims. Unlike her company, she questions her motives for being there. Is this fun? Is anybody having any fun here? She cannot seem to enter the temple – both a psychological and physical block – passage is denied, did she want to be there?
4. Mary is in a cave. No, she is in a desert. Then the desert is in the cave. But the desert here is underwater. And the desert there has always been dry. So Mary is now living inside, outside, or even next to a cave in the semi-desert. While Arid and dusty, this land is not without crop or water. The wayward eye of an urban wanderer, such as Mary was in Alexandria, readily adapts a dual- fovea necessary for foraging in her new terrain. The days extend into years which perhaps even span a decade. We think she was alone, the witness has yet to find her.
5. Mary does make friends in the desert.
6. Is this the witness who finds her?
7. Has this witness come to save her? To bury her? To accompany her? Is this even the witness?
8. Mary dies. In life she was a corpse, in death she becomes immaculate. Her forlorn figure levitates seventeen inches above the ground, no longer subject to physical laws of decay as we know them, and endures as an emblem for love and peace and forgiveness and further for the possibility to both choose and reject the world for which we live in. She chose the cave and she chose the desert. Over time her weathered flesh layers as her environment so that, her environment, in turn, becomes her flesh – a delicate, dry, cavernous, and hard surface that conveys the accumulation of contact a body wears through time. Pulled from the Earth, where horizontal flows to a vertical, the resurrection of her-self as her witness signals a return to say: “Hello”
9. Mary ascends in corporal entirety. The witness here is watching her. She watches herself.
Soiled [Resurrected], 2017-2020
Foam, poured chia, gold foil, bronze powder, shellac
4 1/2 x 24 x 83 inches (11.4 x 61 x 210.8 cm)
Soiled [Resurrected], 2017-2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: “You were born. And so you’re Free. So happy birthday”, 2020
bronze, coins, eyeshadow, and New York granite
68 x 28 x 18 inches (172.7 x 71.1 x 45.7 cm)
Intralocutor: “You were born. And so you’re Free. So happy birthday”, 2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: “You were born. And so you’re Free. So happy birthday”, 2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: “You were born. And so you’re Free. So happy birthday”, 2020 [detail]
Hello, 2020
aluminum and fairy lights
5 x 3 x 2 inches (12.7 x 7.6 x 5.1 cm)
installation dimensions variable
edition of 5 + 1 AP
Halo is leaking, 2020
mirror, gouache, pastel, shellac, graphite, bronze powder, matches, matchbox, and MDF
21 1/2 x 21 1/2 x 1 inches (54.6 x 54.6 x 2.5 cm)
Safe, 2019
125 glass bowls
dimensions variable
Safe, 2019 [detail]
Safe, 2019 [detail]
Picnic, 2020
12 glass bowls, sourdough bread and coins
installation dimensions variable
Picnic, 2020 [detail]
Picnic, 2020 [detail]
Corpse Kitty: towards a friendly fatality, 2020
bronze, eyeshadow
19 3/4 x 40 1/8 x 12 5/8 inches (50 x 102 x 32 cm)
Corpse Kitty: towards a friendly fatality, 2020 [detail]
Corpse Kitty: towards a friendly fatality, 2020
Corpse Kitty: towards a friendly fatality, 2020 [detail]
Empty Stomach, 2020
26 glass bowls, eco-plastic, water, bronze, glitter, sand, desert dirt and coins
installation dimensions variable
Empty Stomach, 2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: it’s not an attraction, 2020
bronze, eyeshadow
body: 24 x 10 1/4 x 18 1/8 inches (61 x 26 x 46 cm)
flower: 14 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 4 inches (36.8 x 11.4 x 10.2 cm)
edition of 3 + 1 AP
Intralocutor: it’s not an attraction, 2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: it’s not an attraction, 2020 [detail]
Bread Garden, 2020
aluminum, bronze and tuna cans
21 bread pieces and 52 cans
Installation dimensions variable
Bread Garden, 2020 [detail]
Bread Garden, 2020 [detail]
Bread Garden, 2020 [detail]
Fence [Undone], 2019-2020
ranch fencing, fairy lights, aluminum, coins, and steel wire
32 x 27 x 27 inches (81.3 x 68.6 x 68.6 cm)
Fence [Undone], 2019-2020 [detail]
Fence [Undone], 2019-2020 [detail]
Fence [Undone], 2019-2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: towards an attraction, 2020
bronze, eyeshadow, and pillow
68 x 10 2/4 x 18 1/8 inches (172.7 x 26.7 x 46 cm)
edition of 3 + 1 AP
Intralocutor: towards an attraction, 2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: towards an attraction, 2020 [detail]
Intralocutor: towards an attraction, 2020 [detail]
Halo: even if it’s free, 2020
lilies, bronze powder, graphite, shellac and MDF on cardboard
25 1/2 x 25 1/2 x 1 inches (64.8 x 64.8 x 2.5 cm)
