323: objects of isolation

Artist

New York, N.Y . –  LatchKey Gallery (323 Canal Street, NYC) is pleased to announce Objects of Isolation a special installation created for the gallery’s summer public program by artist Estelle Maisonett. Objects of Isolation will be on view at 323 Canal Street in Manhattan from August 17 , to September 7, 2021.  Influenced by the extreme lifestyle shift brought about by the COVID 19 Pandemic, Maisonett’s installation explores the convergence of interior and exterior spaces and investigates how personal relationships to objects and materials inform preconceived notions of identity. 

The installation uses found materials to reference objects and experiences made common by the shared circumstances of the last year: being stuck indoors, rearranging, and revaluating professional and social obligations, communicating primarily through technology, and spending time in solitude. Masks, disinfectants, social media, and zoom, as well as other familiar artifacts of the moment, are memorialized in her life size installation, reminding the viewer of the simultaneous comforts and discomforts found in confinement.  Thematic to Maisonett’s work is the representation of the figure using various material and media, without directly depicting the body. The ghostly representation of life confronts the viewer to fill the gaps with their own ideas and experiences, as well as contend with the empty space, and the stark reality of what and who has been lost over the last year and a half. 

Viewing the installation from the street through the gallery window physically removes the viewer from the object itself and the subject matter it represents. By creating this barrier, the artist symbolizes the growing distance of present-day life. The viewer is left to consider the ways they have adapted to this new reality of enforced stillness, as well as their lingering and perhaps unsatisfied desires.

Estelle Maisonett is a Mexican Puerto-Rican mixed-media interdisciplinary artist born and raised in the Bronx, New York.  She received her BFA from SUNY Purchase College in 2013, was a 2021 New Wave Artist in Residence, 2018 Artist in the MarketPlace Fellow at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and a 2018 BronxArtSpace Summer Artist in Residence. Estelle has exhibited with Chashama, Silent Barn, Field Projects, Bronx Art Space, El Barrio ArtSpace at PS109, Latchkey Gallery, Longwood Art Gallery, The Andrew Freedman Home, Hostos College, The School of Visual Arts and SUNY Purchase College amongst others. 

Maisonett will begin her MFA at Yale University, Fall 2021.