Genesis Belanger at Pace London: seduced by the fake and the real

Genesis Belanger gives everyday objects a surreal magic. Her ceramic and mixed media installations, created in her Brooklyn studio, reimagine household or natural objects, underpinned by an unsettling play between attraction and disgust. “I’m trying to float in this repulsive, seductive state,” the artist tells me as we speak outside her solo exhibition In the Right Conditions We Are Indistinguishable, opening at Pace, London.

Husband material is a sculptural grocery bag that appears to be frozen in mid-collapse. An open package of cookies wobbles out on the right side as the bag opens at the front. If this movement continued, the bag and its contents would fall awkwardly to the ground. Cause and effect shows a vacuum cleaner expressively devouring a piece of carpet. In Family portraitA cupboard at home is filled with various bottles and there is a fresh sandwich on top.

Genesis Belanger, It always comes out in the wash2024

(Image credit: © Genesis Belanger Photography by Pauline Shapiro, courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery)

“I think refrigerators and medicine cabinets are like portraits,” Belanger says. “They are a way of transporting the owner into a time, place and context without ever seeing them.” “Through this domestic lens you can tell a whole story.” While human forms are usually absent, many sculptures suggest the Artist’s personality and lifestyle through the objects depicted alone.

For this exhibition, Belanger considered the importance of context in shaping who we are. This is inspired, in a broader sense, by the changes in state of substances depending on their environment; For example, water turns into steam in a hot environment. She has applied this idea to people, examining how sociopolitical or domestic environments might impact individuals, particularly given the current polarization surrounding the US election.

These ideas flow into the show in an abstract way. The work itself becomes slippery, its various symbols and icons taking on different meanings depending on the context of the work. A recurring red dot can be read as a cherry or pearl in different places. “Every time you see a shape, its meaning can change,” the artist tells me. “The object may be the same, but the scale has changed.”

Artwork consisting of a wooden desk with decorative items

Genesis Belanger, self-consciousness2024

(Image credit: © Genesis Belanger Photography by Pauline Shapiro, courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery)

Belenger’s process also encourages multiple readings. Her pieces are carefully rendered, categorizing them as art objects but mimicking the look of cheap imitations and reflecting the artist’s previous experience as a prop styling assistant. She combines a range of materials with ceramics, chosen for their technical and narrative potential. clean the vacuum cleaner bag Cause and effect is made from men’s suit fabric. Belanger works hard to balance this with the look of the ceramic, throwing the viewer off when they eventually notice a different material.

The works also move between dimensions. She notes that although the works are real objects, photos of them have been interpreted as AI-generated. “They look like a 3D model, which I think is really cool,” she says. “How to make something appear fake; included [case]“We understood that things were fake even though they were actually real.”

Ceramic artwork with shelf on the wall full of household items

Genesis Belanger, Family portrait2024

The idea of nature runs through the show, in a domesticated, controlled form. Belanger wanted to evoke the idea of nature as a backdrop, something we experience but rarely fully engage with. She notes how nature itself has changed throughout art history, with a painting of a flower inspiring a sculpture and so on. “Every time it becomes an inspiration of inspiration instead of reality.” I think that’s how we all, especially those of us who live in the city, experience nature. At degrees of separation.’

Before this exhibition, Belanger turned to painting for a year. These pieces inspired and incorporated the saturated color palette at Pace Something Edena 7 foot tall tile relief. This work features bright blooming flowers and vines against a uniform grid with a retro digital aesthetic. “It’s as if Super Mario Bros. 2 “I had a level based on the Garden of Eden,” she laughs. “It’s the first time I’ve created something relatively two-dimensional that, to me, feels as expansive as the sculptures.” Together, her pieces transport the viewer into a giant dollhouse, neither quite real nor quite fake, centered on her leaves their own context and their own projections to try to make sense of it.

Genesis Belanger’s exhibition “In the Right Conditions We Are Indistinguishable” is on view at Pace, London until November 9, 2024

Pacegallery.com

Genesis Belanger, Managed expectations (you only earn a small portion), 2024

(Image credit: © Genesis Belanger Photography by Pauline Shapiro, courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery)

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