HESSE FLATOW is pleased to announce the opening of Paraphernalia, an exhibition of paintings by Lizzie Gill, marking her first solo presentation with the gallery.
Known for her elegant tablescapes featuring a menagerie of porcelain animals and antique ceramic wares, Gill centers her inquiry around the care and continuity of material culture through the trope of the conversation piece. Like the art historical genre whose depictions of social activities in domestic settings illustrate a sense of commonality within a group, Gill’s paintings similarly mine interconnections through the mise-en-scène of museum artifacts and family heirlooms, both as conversation pieces to gather around as well as anthropomorphized participants in conversation.
Appropriating through an image transfer process decorative tea sets, vases, pitchers, and animals from her mother’s porcelain collection, Gill enacts a contextual shift reminiscent of the way objects undergo changes in authorship and ownership. Arranged hierarchically as if following the conventions of a dinner place setting, each vessel pieces together a narrative sequence informed by personal memories, generational knowledge, cultural codes, and allegorical symbolisms both inherent and outwardly displayed.
Having lips, necks, bellies, and feet, these containers connote the human body, dually asserting feminine and masculine features. Stilled onto each form are action-packed imagery of Mother Nature (an erupting volcano or powerful twister) as well as man’s feats of innovation (rocket launches or automobile races), providing portals onto alternative timelines and places beyond the immediate milieu of her paintings. Piping a marble dust emulsion to intricately delineate floral arrangements and the patterning of tablecloths, Gill evokes the refinement of domestic interiors; yet rather quickly, her compositions toggle to landscapes through the table’s sweeping horizon line and overarching sun-moon signifying day and night.
Following the analogy of heirlooms, the meandering overgrowth of rare flowers presents an urgency to nurture and propagate. Gill likens this cultivating to the stewardship of objects, particularly those passed down the maternal line. Derived from the Greek term paráphernal meaning “beyond the dowry”, the exhibition’s title references a woman’s property outside of her marriage, effectively immune to a legal sequestering. Especially amidst the context of recent efforts by museums to repatriate artifacts that may have been unjustly acquired, Gill contemplates responsible practices of care, preservation, and accessibility. Caught within their ensnaring stems, she illustrates their psychological holdings and fervent calls of duty.
Lizzie Gill (b. 1989) is a multimedia artist whose work explores themes of domesticity in a contemporary context. Gill has been exhibited recently at Ryan Lee, New York, NY; Aicon Gallery, New York, NY; Carol Corey Fine Art, Kent, CT; Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY, among others. Her recent residencies include the Wassaic Project and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work is held in noted private and public collections including The Bunker Artspace, Palm Beach, Johnson & Johnson and Fidelity. Gill lives and works in Sharon, CT.
