Statement
Giving fake Tiffany, bought from the trunk of a Cadillac, to Rachel Cohen for her Bat Mitzvah. Microwaving lavash and string cheese for an after-school snack. Tending to a mustache and beard since 5th grade. Going to the AC Tropicana for weekend “getaways”. Watching Cher in Moonstruck every night before bed. Drinking milk from a martini glass. This is my DNA. Coming from diasporic backgrounds and growing up in the restaurant industry, I know what it is to dream. Displaced communities have no choice but to create a blended being of who they were and who they will be. Although it can take generations to recover from the colonizing and bloodshed that peoples survived through, when close to healing, a vibrant fruit of new and old can begin to bloom. Stemming from critique of institutions, my work takes on a style of research that is nonhierarchical and envelops the domestic. Immigrant households, the corner bar, carpet stores, flower shops, funeral homes, travel agencies, flea markets, limo rentals, butcher shops, these are places I glean from to inform my practice. I want to collaborate and highlight peoples’ stories, recipes, traditions, spaces, and customs all through making.
As a multidisciplinary artist I seek to materialize identity. Leather patchwork quilts, chandelier plant hangers, lathed alcohol bottles, Persian rug table cloths, are icons of my practice. I combine domestic materials, food, pop culture, and elements of storefronts to make hybrid works that play with time in terms of generation. Within my objects and spaces, I utilize counterfeit goods, facades and faux luxury. Contact paper peels onto the wall performing as a slab of Carrara marble, longing to be seen as something it’s not. This sentiment allows me to present narratives about taste, humor, desperation, and violence embedded within the drive for success in the United States.
In questioning how and who determines authenticity, I utilize liminal space, a marker of the in-between, to represent migration and friction between internal and external identities. Through the reflection of my Armenian and queer body, I create photos, textile, sculpture and installation that investigate how people perform, mask, and transcend class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality through the adornment and modification of their surroundings and person
Bio
Gabrielle Constantine (1994) was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she received her double BFA in Sculpture and Fibers and Material studies at the Tyler School of Art (2017). She’s currently living and working in Austin, TX pursuing an MFA at The University of Texas of Austin. Having grown up in an Armenian community, Constantine draws from displaced communities reestablishing culture in America. The influence of growing up and working in the restaurant industry has always been a big part of how she navigates through the world and especially an art practice. In her youth, Constantine had every intention to attend culinary school but ended up pursuing an art degree instead. In 2017 she co-founded a series called Supper Club in collaboration with Reading Terminal Market. A collection of alternative art shows that showcased narratives of vendors in the market, such as butcher shops, spice stores, and fruit stands. Supper Club was her introduction to collaboration, along with layering food and art practices. Through time she’s consistently worked this way in conjunction with her studio practice. In 2020 she started Not Now, But Now a series of installation dinners. Since coming to Austin she has hosted local gallerists, writers, and artists to share dinner with grad students through prompt-based meals and continues to innovate ways of gathering community through art and food.