Scene 8: Aircraft Carrier

lauren kelley

august 26 –

november 10

reception: september 5, 5–7pm

In Scene 8: Aircraft Carrier by Lauren Kelley, the artist treats the gallery like a diorama or a set from her latest stop-motion animation video titled "Scene 8: The Aircraft's Refrigerated Storage." This exhibition is part of an ongoing series that conflates notes on travel with impressions of everyday life. Kelley builds malleable worlds to offset a robust protagonist whose quirks stem from efforts to correct the asymmetrical relationships they encounter. Accentuating that which is off-kilter through drawings and videos, Kelley began this work in 2021 while an artist-in-residence with Skidmore College's Tang Teaching Museum. Like everyone in 2021, she was maneuvering through a post-pandemic landscape. Expanding upon ideas about travel, Kelley is currently exploring global movement through the repatriation of heritage objects—meditating on pillage items departing museum collections and returning to their place of origin. Plasticine, toys, and souvenirs are employed to assess a heavy history freely and render the perpetual motion of a colonial journey like the African diaspora.

Lauren Kelley is an interdisciplinary artist who employs a wry wit when commenting on matters of innocence, race, and girlhood. At the core of her practice is a series of short, stop-motion animated videos that combine clay-mation with her brown, plastic dolls. Dolls are Kelley’s vehicle for navigating the space between luxuries and necessities; sweet and unsavory sentiments; Black and non-black worlds. Kelley’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and the New Museum, New York, NY. Reviews of her work have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker and Art in America.