Gabrielle Constantine

Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

Artist statement

Growing up in an Armenian Matriarchy and the restaurant industry has foundationally informed my material, linguistic and performative decisions surrounding my sculptures, installations and gatherings. In Its entirety, I describe my practice as home building, where the objects I make or the dinners I host become parts within the home that i’m always building upon. In recent years my practice has been quite nomadic where Im constantly folding and unfolding my studio. Textiles have become a main character within my work due to their ability to quickly establish home within a new temporary space. My works emerge through the re-assembling of personal and popular cultures. Like making a quilt, I collect discarded scraps, stitching them back together, producing an eccentric version of its original. To see a seam or stitch on a sculpture of mine is to see a scar on skin, where history and healing coexist. I have an ongoing collection of textiles and objects that have been inherited, bought, or found over the years. Im interested in the livelihood of objects and how they can adapt through different hands and value systems. The assembly of my works are visually quick but with deeper looking a viewer can witness a quiet labor. Through thousands of hand stitches or mirror cut to mosaic, you can see the hand repeating itself over and over and over again. This silent labor is one that connects my practice to lineages of femme, queer, matriarchal, diasporic, and working class crafts.

Artwork