Statement
Raised by an Armenian matriarchy 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. 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’m interested in the people, stories, livelihoods, infrastructures that make up these places, because they are rooted in knowledge that I would categorize as craft.
As an artist who was raised in a bar, I’ve always been attune to the class dynamics that differentiated my two worlds of art and hospitality. Materially, I’m most interested in the moments when something fails to replicate. Like contact paper peeling onto the wall and performing as a slab of Carrara marble, longing to be seen as something it’s not. Utilizing the faux allows me to present narratives around taste and the ways in which we perceive whiteness and class within the United States. In my sculptures and installations, I investigate how materials and objects can be indicators of socioeconomic identities. With sincerity and humor in tandem, I poke at the hierarchies and authorities deeming good and bad taste.
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. I have an ongoing collection of textiles and objects, sourced from thrift stores, garage sales, facebook marketplace, antique malls, foreclosures, Craigslist, hammy-downs and that free box on the side of the road. Im interested in the livelihood of objects and how they can adapt through different hands and value systems. No matter how distorted my sourced materials become, I believe they stamp my practice with traces of, kitsch, generational time, and the domestic.
Bio
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 Constantine's DNA. 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 and holds an MFA at The University of Texas of Austin (2023) . Growing up in an Armenian Community and the restaurant industry has inexplicably informed her material, linguistic, and performative decisions surrounding her sculptures, installations, and gatherings. Along side her more sculptural practice, Constantine has shared in cooking dinners and hosting gatherings with communities in Philadelphia, Mexico City, Austin, and is consistently and continually innovating ways of gathering community through art and food.