Jennifer Celio’s impressive solo exhibition, The Wilderness Within closed at Elephant a month ago, but it haunts the imagination – of both viewer and the artist. Celio transformed the intimate space at the Glassell Park gallery into a suburban house garage, one displaying souvenirs and objects that referred to the intersection of the urban (or suburban) world and that of nature. Referencing the hunting of exotic animals, and the hunting of memories and truth, Celio created a treasure-trove of reclaimed and reformed the stories of her childhood.
The quality of memories both restored and expurgated, held dear and in that transitional space between what we know now, and what we knew then, brings a special poignancy to a terrific installation that serves as a life-size diorama of both the past — and the future of humankind.
The installation is based on Celio’s memories of her grandparents’ Southern California suburban home. The garage, which was also a workshop space for her grandfather, included some elements that were outside the scope of most tract houses of the era. Here were hung exotic animal heads that both horrified and fascinated the artist. Allowed to gather dust in the garage, there were other elements around her grandparents property that exuded the same repulsion and interest – an elephant foot ashtray, among the memorabilia. Adding to the somehow both fond and shocking quality of the objects, the artist learned as an adult that these artifacts were not the trophies belonging to her grandfather or half-forgotten purchases from an estate sale, but that they were from her grandmother’s safaris with her previous husband.
Celio’s mixed media work in this installation was a kind of wondrous and strange grab bag of memory itself: there were assemblages, vintage and personal belongings, 80s-style furnishings including lampshades made of macrame, and faux National Park posters. The latter were created in the look of the WPA decade with updated irony in the form of cell towers that look like trees, smart-phone selfie taking, and catch phrases encouraging social media use.
Here, too, were cigarette stubs made from worn pencils, a dart board with faux fur elements, and as a centerpiece, a seating area that includes the aforementioned elephant foot ashtray – this one crafted of paper, wood, and a vintage ashtray.
There are coffee cans that are painted with animal/Africa themes, an umbrella crafted of delicate paper, a series of witty paintings that feature drones. Creating this immersive environment from diverse memories and facts, Celio used found materials extensively.
Surreal, elegiac, and profoundly intimate,The Wilderness Within was a “garage room” dream of art – all secret finds and perfect small elements, an alchemically transformed space that took the viewer back in time, and back into our hearts, to explore both our often complicated pasts and our relationship with nature, our impact on it and our human family.
Celio’s National Parks poster/painting was one of our favorite elements, and if you missed the magic of Celio’s installation itself, you can pre-order a piece of it: a limited edition giclee print of the work from the artist, who you can reach with a message, among other social media locations,
here and
here.
- Genie Davis; photos: both my own and provided by the artist
