genesis belanger: holding pattern exhibits at the new museum in new york

with ceramics sculpted in porcelain and stoneware pigmented in pastel hues, genesis belanger’s series entitled ‘holding pattern’ culls the uncanny from the everyday. exhibited at new york’s new museum, such mundane items as cigarette stubs, soda cans, handbags, and stray pills are rendered strange as they become surrogates for the body, evoking both comfort and disquiet. while belanger introduces references from pop art, surrealism, and seventeenth-century dutch paintings, her work remains acutely attuned to contemporary archetypes. the smooth and supple elegance of her forms often contrasts with their darkly humorous insinuations relating to subjects such as mass production and chemical dependency.

‘genesis belanger: holding pattern,’ 2019 | exhibition view: new museum, new york
all images by charles benton

‘holding pattern’ at the new museum expresses the influence from liminal spaces where one might dwell in a state of limbo. these spaces include office waiting rooms, hotel lobbies, or airport lounges. belanger’s objects invoke this liminality through their posture, often seeming limp or wilting as if they had been left or forgotten over time. viewers peer through the window onto a receptionist’s desk adorned with office supplies and an uneaten lunch, while an open desk drawer reveals items one might consume in order to cope with the stresses of daily life such as candy, a bottle of liquor, and pill packets.

a low bench with two grinning lamps faces visitors between a color-paneled curtain punctuating the threshold between the windows. this barrier serves to divide the space of waiting from that of anticipation. ceramic bricks wrapped with notes are scattered throughout with the implication of waiting to be pitched through a window allowing those trapped in purgatory to break free. curated by margot norton, ‘genesis belanger: holding pattern’ joins a new series of storefront window installations that relaunches a program the new museum originally mounted in the 1980s.

acquiesce, 2018. stoneware | 13 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 16 in (34.3 x 19.1 x 15.2 cm)
image courtesy the artist and nathalie karg gallery

at rest, 2018. porcelain | 12 x 17 x 4 in (30.5 x 43.2 x 10.2 cm)
courtesy the artist and mrs. gallery, new york

daily adoration, 2018 | stoneware, porcelain, plywood, and fabric | 46 7/16 x 63 x 28 in (118 x 160 x 71.1 cm)
installation view: a strange relative, perrotin, new york
courtesy the artist and perrotin, new york