Magdalen Celestino
Katy, TX
Generator
“Generator” is a physical incantation, a lab of secret systems and shadowy inhabitants. In this work, a stray world gathers from a sensuality of things familiar and strange. These are the conspirators in a wisp of story, a Pandora’s box of potentials.
The materials are mundane yet fetishistic and loaded with baggage. Rubber latex, carbon black, bloody red sutures, lard, hemp, blood, fake fur, wine, Ikea furniture, work lamps, lava lamps, shoes, a food stash, a mag stash, an assortment of living residue, random and precise.
“Generator”, for one thing, bears the “pupa”, the animal-headed figure made of rubber latex, that conjures mutants, voodoo dolls, botched experiments, toys. Built from layer upon layer upon layer of tree sap and vivified with red sutures, it is here in orderly swarm. Mutated, amputated, creepy yet cheerful, the pupa is a benign agent of unknowable experience.
This is a homemade body of evidence, repelling yet appealing and painstakingly inept. Obsessive, vulnerable and fraught with distraction, it is pointedly low tech.
“Generator” could be a wonky means of transcendence/subversion. It uses a host of curious goods to codify a compulsive mythology, a cult of one. This position seems symptom to a progressive sense of loss, of control, of self, of surroundings, in the realm of a phobic everyday.
Artist's Bio:
Magdalen Celestino’s work in sculpture/installation uses familiar yet connotative materials in physical fictions about a homegrown production of hybrid life forms. Her work has been shown in Canada, the U.S., Italy, Spain, and Germany. Group shows include “Anni Novanta: the Nineties”, Galeria d”Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy (1991), “Heavy Mental”, The Powerplant, Toronto (1995); “Making Strange”, the Art Gallery of Ontario (1996) and in 2004, “Get a little closer…”, The Oakville Galleries, an exhibition curated by the public from work in a museum collection. Recent solo installations include “Lab Shack Loner” at Art League Houston (2004), “Generator” Lawndale Art Center, Houston (2005), “Proto-Vivo-Pupa”, Redbud Gallery, Houston (2005) “Plasmatika”, Cactus Bra Space, San Antonio. TX (2005), and Mackey Gallery, Houston, (2006). A graduate of Ontario College of Art (A.O.C.A) and University of Windsor, (B.A.), she has received several Canada Council Visual Arts Grants and Ontario Arts Council Project Grants. Her work is represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Canada Council Art Bank, The Oakville Galleries, and the Art Gallery of Windsor. Celestino is represented by Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto, and Mackey Gallery, Houston.
