Josh Lilley presents House Sounds, the second gallery exhibition by Chicago-based artist Celeste Rapone. House Sounds is the soundtrack of a lifetime. The humdrum of the microwave, the chink of utensils on a meathook, the creaky springs of the bed – the soothing tones of home are here, echoing through the room. With eleven new paintings, Rapone composes a visual symphony; an ode to the cacophony of domestic noise which accompanies our everyday existence, to the clatter of our childhood world which sings playfully in the back of our minds, imbuing itself into all future encounters. In each canvas Rapone searches through an archive of formative experiences: family gatherings and rituals, ephemera and sentimental objects, merging these with symbols of adulthood; household labour, interior design, weekend leisure, lazy intimate rendezvous. Oscillating between deep notes of personal memory and more collective codes of female subjectivity, these references, like Rapone’s subjects, are suspended – stuck somewhere between the past and present, trying to find their way out. Sometimes exposed, sometimes obscured and always to some degree distorted, each citation battles for its place, working to provide clues as to how subjects are formed. The results are tempered yet limber snapshots of existence. They show what got left behind, what stayed, and what moved in and took up residency. These are stories of formation and reformation.
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Through Rapone’s work we are taken on an exploration of nostalgia, melancholia and ultimately, self-fulfillment. In her paintings we can identify those familiar trappings of home which cradle us, but which also bind us, and push us to spend a life-time breaking free. They take us into the claustrophobic space of your mind’s eye and force us to think about the roles we play and why.
Much like your favorite album, House Sounds transports you through time and taps into the rhythm of life. And it stays with you, moving things along.
Josh Lilley
London, UK
