Dec 19th 2013

Diego Leclery: Mom

@ Kirk's Apartment

2251 W Cornelia Ave, #2, Chicago IL

Opening Thursday, December 19th, from 5PM - 9PM

On view through Friday, March 7th

“Kirk’s Apartment is pleased to announce the opening of Diego Leclery’s “Mom” on Thursday, December 19, 2013, with a public reception from 5-9PM. This exhibition is Leclery’s first solo exhibition with Kirk’s Apartment, and will run from December 19, 2013 to March 7, 2014.

It is also the final exhibition for Kirk’s Apartment.

In this exhibition, Leclery investigates the role of his mother on his practice, and on himself as an artist.

For 35 years, Leclery’s mother has been a major influence on him. In these three works Leclery comes to terms with that influence and posits a possible resolution of conflicted feelings, a reconciliation of conflicting desires, and a reintegration of divergent spheres of operation.

In other words, Leclery is suggesting a place where two (and potentially more) forms of approval can coexist, nourish each other, and reflect back on one another: a mother’s pride and an artwork’s reception. (Certainly, Leclery’s mother would not be proud of her son for putting on a shitty show about her.)

The three works in this exhibition are paeans, enshrining perceived attributes that are relevant to the artist’s formation: his mother’s acute visual sensitivity expressed as disgust at the sight of public breastfeeding, toothbrushing outside the bathroom, and head-shaving; his mother’s acute intellectual sensitivity to words as expressed through a lifelong commitment to the novel, and, in particular, to that pinnacle achievement of bibliophilia, the reading and re-reading of Marcel Proust’s masterwork; and a combination of the above visual and literary sensitivities as expressed in the use of pithy quotes, poignant statements, and store-bought inspirational mottos as elements of home decoration.

All works are from 2013 and are simply titled “Mom”:

Mom, 2013, digital video
a video documentation of the artist’s attempt to visualize three of his mother’s worst visual phobias: head-shaving, breast-feeding, and away-from-bathroom tooth-brushing.

Mom, 2013, installation
a collection of objects belonging the artist’s mother that she uses to decorate her New York apartment and that reflect back on her attitudes that are encouraging, reassuring, or cool.

Mom, 2013, performance
the result of the artist’s attempt to read Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu.”

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