Genesis Belanger: Through the Eye of a Needle at the Aldrich
Surrealist Ceramic Art, in my opinion there isn’t enough of it on display in galleries, so you can imagine how excited I was when I walked into the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and there was an entire exhibit of Genesis Belanger’s stunning work.
‘Through the Eye of a Needle’ resembles a funeral home, complete with waiting room, buffet table and a piano. The ceramics are everyday objects, produced in flat matte colours, but each one has an unsettling twist.
“I was thinking of how any transition, even a positive one, results in a period of grieving, because change is inherently a loss. That brought me to the question: how do we support people in the most extreme circumstances?”
There is the familiarity of a bowl of fruit and then you see the set of teeth. The vase of flowers complete with fingers, a chocolate box that is not filled with treats. The effect is kind of unsettling and a little gloomy, but in the most wonderful way. Those missing toes have been playing on my mind long since I left the museum.
Belanger has taken the title of the exhibit from a bible proverb: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.” and asks if anyone who has profited from inequality and environmental catastrophe actually possesses the virtues required to get into heaven.
Belanger was born in Massachusetts, USA in 1978 and now lives and works in New York City. Her process begins with forms that have been pressed from sheets of rolled clay, which she then models by hand and fires once, preferring natural coloured clay and avoiding any glaze.
‘Through the Eye of a Needle’ is Belanger’s first major museum exhibit and I’m excited to see her next.
Genesis Belanger: Through the Eye of a Needle is on display at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut until May 9th 2021.
Featured image: ‘A Fortress of Order and Generosity’, 2020, Photo by: Pauline Shapiro