Find an event
Rochelle Feinstein
The social commentary in Rochelle Feinstein’s smart and witty paintings, sculpture and altered vintage electronics has a personal touch. In Love Is Over: The 14 Languages of (my) (ex) Lovers, the New York–based artist verges close to Tracey Emin’s confessional territory: Feinstein prints “Love is over” on mirrors in big black letters, repeating the words in Creole, Spanish, French, Chinese, English, Catalan, and the African languages Yoruba and Bete. But the piece isn’t as self-absorbed as it seems: Feinstein is really referencing “War Is Over,” the anti–Vietnam War media campaign staged by Yoko Ono and John Lennon in 1969, and she mitigates the melodrama of her declarative statement by positioning it vertically so that it’s difficult to read.
In Ball and Chain (2007), Feinstein attaches a tiny disco ball to a black rotating platform on the floor of the gallery. As it spins and sparkles, the piece suggests dependence on a glamorous life of partying while playing with the cliché of word-object associations. Another disco ball appears in Feinstein’s 2008 multimedia installation Untitled (1981); by painting one on a mini Sony TV screen, the artist abstracts the action and reduces dialogue to background noise.
As Feinstein calls attention to our unquestioning acceptance of language and the media, she piles on so many quotations and layers of meaning that it would be difficult for the casual viewer to catch every reference. But those in the know can enjoy her mixed messages on multiple levels: as eye candy or as pointed critique.
