ROCHELLE GOLDBERG
PARIS PARFUM ST HONORÉ – COMMISSIONED

BORN IN VANCOUVER, CANADA, IN 1984, ROCHELLE GOLDBERG EARNED HER MFA FROM BARD COLLEGE, AND CURRENTLY LIVES AND WORKS IN NEW YORK CITY. IN 2018, SHE WAS THE WINNER OF THE BATTAGLIA FOUNDRY SCULPTURE PRIZE #03 AND ARTISTIN-RESIDENCE AT THE CHINATI FOUNDATION, MARFA. ADDITIONALLY, GOLDBERG WAS THE ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE AT THE ATELIER CALDER IN THE SPRING OF 2017, AND THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2015 LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY AWARD. IN 2016, GOLDBERG HAD HER FIRST INSTITUTIONAL SOLO EXHIBITION AT SCULPTURECENTER IN NEW YORK. SHE ALSO CONTRIBUTED A LARGE-SCALE INSTALLATION WORK TO MIRROR CELLS, CURATED BY CHRISTOPHER LEW AND JANE PANETTA AT THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, AND PARTICIPATED IN THE OKAYAMA ART SUMMIT, A BIENNIAL EXHIBITION ORGANIZED BY LIAM GILLICK ACROSS MULTIPLE VENUES IN OKAYAMA, JAPAN. NO WHERE, NOW HERE, GOLDBERG’S SOLO EXHIBITION AT GAMEC IN BERGAMO, ITALY WAS ON VIEW THROUGH JANUARY 2017. THE CATALOGUE FOR THAT EXHIBITION, PUBLISHED BY MOUSSE AND GAMEC, AS WELL AS A NEW MONOGRAPH, CANNIBAL ACTIF (NEW YORK: TOTEM/SEQUENCE PRESS), WERE BOTH RELEASED IN 2017. INTRALOCUTORS, HER FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION AT MIGUEL ABREU GALLERY, WAS ON VIEW IN THE SPRING OF 2017.

THE MASKS IN THE COMPOSITE RELEASE SERIES ARE MADE FROM RIVER CLAY AND TONALLY GLAZED IN GRAPHITE, BROWN, AND GOLD. TANGLED CERAMIC SNAKES INHABIT THE VACANT VESTIGES OF A MASK-LIKE FORM, BOTH COMPLICATING THE SURFACE AND THE IDENTITY OF THE SUBJECT PRESENTED. THE FLUCTUATING SURFACE SUSPENDS A TANGLED MOTION AND APPEARS AS BOTH COMING AND GOING. THE SUBJECT’S ARRIVAL, SIMULTANEOUSLY ANNOUNCED AND FROZEN, RECALLS THE SYMBOLIC POTENCY OF THE SERPENT THROUGHOUT TIME. NAMED BY THE ARTIST AS MARY, MARY OF EGYPT, MARY OF THE VALLEY, OR MARY OF THE LAND AS WE FOREVER TRY TO CLAIM IT, THIS COLLAPSED MYTHOLOGICAL MASK SIGNALS HER RETURN AND RESCUE FROM A HISTORY THAT SOUGHT TO FORGET HER. MARY OF EGYPT IS THE PATRON SAINT OF FLESH AND DESIRE, SHE WAS A WOMAN OF STRONG CONVICTIONS WHO LOVED LOVE, LIFE, AND THE DESERT. POPULARLY IN HER DEPICTIONS, MARY OF EGYPT PILLARS FORTH EVOKING SELF-PRESERVATION AS BRUTALITY, LEAVING A MISUNDERSTOOD LEGACY, WHICH IN REALITY WAS A MUTUAL REJECTION BETWEEN HER CORPOREAL-SELF AND THE WORLD. EXILE WAS HER OWN DECISIVE ACTION. THROUGH THE DESERT, SHE ADOPTS A LIFE OF SCARCITY, ESCAPING A MATERIAL WORLD THAT SHE NO LONGER NEEDS TO ‘KNOW,’ IN FAVOR OF WHAT SHE COULD LEARN OR FIND IN A CAVE, BY ROCK, OR ALONG A RIVER. IN LIFE SHE WAS A CORPSE, IN DEATH SHE BECOMES IMMACULATE. HER FORLORN FIGURE ENDURES AS AN EMBLEM FOR LOVE AND PEACE AND FORGIVENESS, AND FURTHER POSSIBILITY TO BOTH CHOOSE AND REJECT THE WORLD FOR WHICH WE LIVE IN. OVER TIME HER WEATHERED FLESH LAYERS AS HER ENVIRONMENT SO THAT, THE DESERT, IN TURN, BECOMES HER FLESH––A HYBRID SURFACE THAT CONVEYS THE ACCUMULATION OF CONTACT A BODY WEARS THROUGH TIME. IF MANY WOMEN OVER TIME WERE COMPRESSED INTO THE ROLE OF ONE MARY, THEN MARY TOO CAN BE MANY AS WE TRY AGAIN TO MEET HER AND BY DOING SO, SPEAK THROUGH HER.

"COMPOSITE RELEASE #3", 2019 (COMMISSIONED WORK)
GLAZED CERAMIC

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