Natalie Rock "Perceptions of The Body"
Spring Break Art Fair NYC 2024
September 4th - 9th
Unix Gallery is pleased to present Natalie Rock's first solo exhibtion at Spring Break Art Fair NYC 2024.
Natalie Rock is a Brooklyn-based mixed media sculptor and installation artist whose work examines the intersections between the body, relationships, and space. Rock’s work invited viewers to contemplate the complex interplay between the internal landscape of the body and the external world. She delves into the dichotomy between the tangible and intangible, the physical and metaphysical, and the personal and collective realms of human existence. Exploring our bodies as homes, how we treat that home, observing our own internal/external bodies function from a bird's eye view.
She employs a diverse range of found materials, ceramics, glass, wood, and metal. Rock meticulously crafts sculptures that probe the female gendered body's position in the contemporary world in relation to domesticity and sexism. By refraining from assigning specific identities to her creations, Rock's art invites viewers to engage in a personal and introspective dialogue. Her sculptures and installations weave together themes of relationships, intimacy, body-image, gender roles, sexism, and abuse. By using found materials with rich histories, Rock infuses her work with layers of meaning and challenges expectations, transforming materials in ways that prompt viewers to reflect on their significance in new and unexpected contexts. From her childhood fascination with sculpting beauty from found, unexpected items that could be considered “trash” to her current exploration of unconventional materials, Rock remains dedicated to defying expectations and presenting materials in fresh, thought-provoking contexts. Rock's journey as an artist is a testament to her, fostering dialogue, and contributing to the evolving narrative of the gendered body in contemporary society.
A Bite
Within the work “A Bite,” Rock explores the unhealthy relationship of the mind and the physical body. A literal depiction of the weight, pain, and burden of eating disorders on the body and the mind constantly. She collected and thrifted these utensils from a variety of decades. The overabundance and wide variety are a representation of how this trauma is passed down generationally and socially.
Untied (Performance)
"Untied," the first in Rock’s “United Series,” delves into the profound intimacy of our beds during covid, exploring the intricate web of relationships and memories woven within. Through an 8-hour weaving process, Rock threads each string through every fold in sight, with the end of the string is left untied. Each string becomes a metaphor for the baggage we bring to our beds, as well as shapes our new interactions. Yet, despite the complexity, no strings are actually tied together, mirroring the impermanence of these connections. We each bring our own strings to a relationship, new strings are added, and some are thrown away during dethreading. The folds in the sheet represent the memories created, and strings are the permanent manifestations of these memories. The strings represent the enduring memories, growth, change, and influences carried forward into new experiences. Followed by a night's sleep and documentation of body imprints, Rock captures the essence of transient intimacy. Each string is then removed individually, allowing for reuse yet leaving behind the holes. "Untied" is a poignant reflection on the “string of life,” the threads that bind us to our pasts and futures alike, impermanence, permanence, and the impact of human connections.
Untied Series: A Photograph: Blue
The Photograph series is an extension of Untied where it represents a photo hung on the wall, a snapshot of a relationship in a moment in time. Blue is this specific work.
Table Turn: 1 of 6 Chairs
“Table Turn,” is an exploration of gendered expectations and the dynamics of domestic labor. Through a dining table and six different chairs meticulously covered in smashed plate shards, Rock challenges traditional notions of housework. This work is about who clears the dining table after a home-cooked meal. This work is influenced by Silvia Federici’s manifesto “Wages Against Housework.” Smashing plates has a variety of different meanings in different cultures: In Germany, couples smash plates to represent a couple's first moment of unity and teamwork; In Greece, to ward off evil spirits and energy on a joyous occasion, to mourn, or to signify the end of a life. in Norway, to represent moving onto a new stage of life at 18. Within this work, the plates represent transformation and unity for the modern couple/family and the growth, change, and death of old habits. Representing the anger and destruction of these old expectations and norms as well as the growing change in modern society.