The action of daydreaming is the impetus for this new body of work by Kelcy Chase Folsom. Each sculpture pieces together a non-linear narrative regarding the dichotomy that exists between our internal and external realities. The transformative material play within each work touches on our experiences of time, love, and unspoken truths.
Artist Statement:
"A pond is a place for reflection, waiting, and perhaps, wishing. I use this small body of water as vessel to turn to, much like the space in our internal realities, our mind, to negotiate possible meaning and reason for emotions, actions, and state of being. This exhibition poses questions about love and unspoken truths in relationships. What really matters? How close can we come totruly understanding each other? How similar are our experiences of love and loss?
Paralleling the clich motto, love is all you need, I used chromed steel plinths underneath Egyptian animal sculptures made entirely out of ephemeral material, papier-mch, and money; Potentially over time, the only thing left standing after they are gone is the minimal support, which itself, could stand alone–a nod to the Minimalist art movement of the 1960s. Titled Time Proof, these animal objects become looming symbols of a mysterious civilization (Egyptian) with all of its proof that it once was, yet so many questions still unanswered; similar to our personal experiences with love, our memories remain, yet the questions of exactly how and why relationships end and began remain insuspension.
Time and its pricelessness pervades our relationships with one another hence anniversaries, birthdays, and death. Longevity is so often used as weight to continue in a relationship, used as currency for staying together, some sort of timesheet of dedication. I've used cardboard cast porcelain covered in precious metals (gold, platinum, silver, and copper) to describe this perception of weight and question material significance. In doing so, the objects dismantle aesthetic value verses material value where card board and gold become equal, begging the viewer tovalidate feelings and emotions as tokens, poking fun at our absurd negotiations with time and love.
Lingering amongst the afore mentioned sculptures are experiments in the banality of daily routine. However, the objects are not what they seem. Attached to the French doors in the space are porcelain doorknobs in the shape of what seems to be an anatomical human heart. The piece titled, Felt But Never Touched, is made from what I think a heart looks like rather than actual. This attempt to create whatI think a heart looks like parallels the inability to truly understand what mylovers heart feels like. In addition, tailored button-up shirts hang on a costume rack, made from enlarged medical imaging of human hearts on fabric. Titled Inside Out, these shirts serveas contrived objects about wearing your heart on your sleeve. They are beautiful, consumable, and comfortable, a presence of superficiality with glib, poetic objecthood. Lastly, two pieces of paper (porcelain) drenched in PeptoBismol are attached on the wall with crystal thumbtacks. The words Heart Shaped Bowling Ball are laser cut into the porcelain paper. They look like a flyer oran announcement, perhaps a stanza for an incomplete poem. The thought of the object (heart shaped bowling ball) is more powerful than the object existing itself. This instant portrait that remains in the viewers head prevails, as that gravity is similar to what we do in instances of internal thought on love and life right now."
More information about Kelcy Chase Folsom here.
Please contact Curator Jennifer Zwilling with any purchase inquiries at jzwilling@theclaystudio.org or 215-925-3453 x18.
