NYAB Event - Jil Weinstock "Mementos"

Jil Weinstock "Mementos"

Sara Meltzer Gallery

This event has ended.

In previous bodies of work, Weinstock's sculptures have existed in a wide variety of media including vintage clothing, pearls, feathers, zippers and doilies cast in rubber forms as well as sculpture of rubber itself. In Mementos, Weinstock explores how experiences of objects and early youth, as viewed through the prism of memory, express the slippage between reality and reminiscence. Employing the same electroplated technique that is used for bronzing baby shoes, Weinstock completely encases an object in a layer of pure copper, which after it oxidizes, is polished to a lustrous shine. This process further memorializes the object, capturing and preserving every scratch, dent and curve left by the marks of time.

Through this labor-intensive process of transforming objects into visually alluring and conceptual mementos, Weinstock recalls the objects' past, suggesting its greater connection to our collective memories, desires, and disappointments. Investigating both individual and group identity, as well as the intimate and extreme, Weinstock's electroplated and bronzed toys create a personal imaginary community that speaks to shared experience. Weinstock's sculptures put forth a potent cultural resonance for representing memory in tandem with the formation of self-narration. What is important to hold on to, or what is important to let go of, is defined as much by what one considers real as what is not real.