Low Profile, 2018, enamel paint on repurposed aluminum with hand blown glass, plastic fencing, paper, and wire, approximately 10” x 14” x 10”
An Online Exclusive
WING Project Space Exhibition
November 9th, 2020 — December 12th, 2020
Utilizing a combination of blown glass and gathered materials, Christina Massey’s alien yet distinctly floral sculptures contort and expand, as if on the precipice of erupting. Strips of jagged, colorfully painted pieces of metal —most often repurposed aluminum from craft beer can and other found mass-produced consumer items — curl, interlace, and entangle, forming petals and leaf-like structures which encircle a translucent pod under as it strains under pressure from every direction.
Along with the bubbling surface of the glass carapace situated within the center of each sculpture (as plastic zip ties and fasteners zig-zag frequently across its surface,) small fragments of text listing ingredients, health indexes, and bar codes peer out from underneath layers of paint. All elements struggle to be restrained, forming a palpable sense of tension.
Massey’s sculptures serve as beautiful yet menacing embodiments of humanity's current battle against and, in some cases, outright denial of, the impact of climate change, and the consequential uncertainty of our final fate. Her works are presented as ticking time bombs of mankind’s construction, on the verge of violently bursting open and further propagating. The constructs are entirely of our own design, but growing out of control.
Yet, the aspects of familiarity within Massey’s structures, possessing a subtly alluring nature, allude to an element of hope as well as the possibility of adaption. Despite our current destructive path, crafted by years of unrestrained consumerism, expansion, and ecological chaos, life will forge on. While it may potentially become unrecognizable to us and evolve into something entirely new and foreign, nature and existence will persist and thrive in some shape or form, with or without humans. Massey’s sculpture effortlessly depicts this concept, at the same time both concurrently comforting and deeply unnerving.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Christina Massey’s work has been exhibited in over a dozen solo exhibitions in the greater NYC metropolitan area and won her several prestigious awards such as the FST StudioProject Fund Grant, Brooklyn Arts Fund Grant, SIP Fellowship at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Puffin Foundation Grant and Mayer Foundation Grant. Massey’s work has been featured in Hyperallergic, Art Spiel and Art Fuse and is in the collections of the Janent Turner Museum, Art Bank Collection in DC, Credit Suisse and multiple private collections. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.