Stitch bound book from the artist's January 2023 show of the same title.
"America, America. Baroque, Baroque. is a fantastical allegory born of artist, Claire Chambless’ real and imagined phantoms.
Through sculpture and video, she uses visceral, relational, and philosophical narratives drawn from her own memory to study proxemic power dynamics.
Of particular concern in the exhibition are: confusion, conflict, contradiction, entrapment, parasitism, vampirism, escapism, phobia and security.
Regarding the works in the show, the artist has this to say:
Notes on the Gothic Baroque
Part I: Thin Leech (National Geographic advertisement collage)
Gregor, a thin leech lands on the translucent skin and feral hairs of a nameless white man’s wrist. The man had just looked down at his brand-spanking new gold Rolex watch a minute before, so, undetected, Gregor got to work.
Before long the skinny leech became engorged. Tummy full they could not stop sucking their victim’s warm blood through the hollow tunnels of their fangs. Vampire Leech, as Gregor would come to be known, sucked again and again, like a milkshake through a straw, even though their rubbery body was painfully full and the room was spinning.
So — gentlemen — the advertisement would show the leech-on-wrist, pre and post-engorgement, a testimony to the strength, self-sacrifice and resilience of white Rolex-wearing men’s bodies. A cautionary tale to all the desiring, smoke-emitting, leeches-who-emit smoke out there.
But cut that lil’ ad right across the middle, dangle engorged Gregor from the corner of skinny Gregor, and then, baby, you’re really saying something.
Part II: Prologue: Claustrophobia (coercive-lullaby, music video)
Just a little more baby, just a little more
Just a little more now baby, just a little more
Good like that
Just a little more now
Good like that
Just like that
just like that
Just like that.
(Boobs go bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.)
(Dick and Balls say bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.)
Part III: Pearl-Trap-Phantom-Limb (how-to sculpture/future projection)
Suspended, a pearl encrusted hunting trap dangles from black latex ropes.
Gasoline-y, oily as fuck. Look! Here!
One of the cage’s bars is broken — liberation!
This is a replica of the following list:
a.) memories
b.) foreshadowing
c.) fantasy and play
d.) archived ontologies
The following materials were used:
a.) dirty sheetrock
b.) linoleum floor
c.) high-drama lighting (Caravaggio)
d.) dangling trap
e.) overtly shitty construction
Part IV: Phantom Limb (surreal sculpture)
“Ok now, come on, come on. Eyes on the faux gallery space. This is Claire’s Tableaux you’re lookin’ at. Where do you think you’re running in your 19th Century stage curtains?”
“We ran ran ran away, don’t you see the footprints? We walked up the walls, onto the raft, and made it back to dry land where we were afforded more gifts.”
“Ha, Ha, Ha, alright Bone, then why’re you still looking at me?”
“I am the ghost of Little Red Riding Hood.”
(Stage goes dark)
THE END
(Who cares. Nobody reads press releases anyway)"
-S.L. 12/20/2024
