STUDIOLI at BASEL SOCIAL CLUB 2023Rochelle Feinstein
Somewhereville
11.06.23 – 18.06.23
For Basel Social Club 2023 Studioli installs the work Somewhereville by the American artist Rochelle Feinstein. The installation, originally part of the exhibition En Plein Air curated at Studioli in 2018, includes a group of artificial plants found in the spaces and painted by the artist with acrylic colors. Besides the plants installation, the drawing china on iguana paper realized by the artist for the En Plein Air Limited Edition Book 2019.
On the occasion of BSC 2023 Rochelle Feinstein conceived a group of new works including 12 Polaroids painted with watercolor and gouache and a limited edition of 9 silkscreens printed on acetate with spray-painting interventions, realized in collaboration with Studio Orme in Rome.
SOMEWHEREVILLE, (2018.2023)
I write from green New Hampshire as a cloud of air pollution, caused by wild res in eastern Canada, blankets the Northeast and Midwest of the U.S.
Invited to participate in a group exhibition, en Plein Air, at Studioli, a unique project space for many reasons. Among these is the intact, original décor of the rooms that housed what had been a grconniére, translated in the jargon of the 70s, bachelor pads. Each room was stylishly decorated: floor-to-ceiling smoky mirrors, wood paneling, faux fur bedspreads, vintage fixtures, and a variety of plastic (petroleum- based) plants of various types. Perhaps the plants were there to “naturalize” or do- mesticate the rooms. Gathering all these (truly) forever plants I covered their uniform green camouflage with fluorescent, toxic colorations. It was a slight interventional step to join what the object looked like with what it was made from into a more symmetrical, true relationship.
In the 2018 installation, each artist selected a space to work within. I chose the smallest room, and limited access by populating floor, tabletops, bed with plants; the overgrowth transforming the room into a diorama, a depiction of past and future conditions. In Somewhereville’s current stand-alone condition, perhaps it conjures the polluted beauty of last evenings spectacular red Moon.
Rochelle Feinstein
Peterborough, NH
June 7, 2023