Material Remains reimagines the Glass House of The Invisible Dog as a modern day globe de mariée, a decorative object which mingled souvenir and talisman to enshrine the memories, hopes, and dreams for a married couple. Preserved under glass, these keepsakes were treasured family artifacts passed on through generations. Using her mother’s wedding dress as well as other 20th-century gowns as raw material for sculpture, Spencer Merolla interrogates this commonplace contemporary heirloom. The wedding gown is both an artifact of an (inaccessible) past, and an object which, through its transference, acts as a conduit for hopes, expectations, and conformity to tradition. Material Remains touches on the ideas of preservation, intention, loss, and remembrance, and explores the heirloom’s capacity to act as both gift and burden.
Spencer Merolla grew up in a drafty Victorian house in Larchmont, New York. Having studied religion as an undergraduate, she had embarked on a career in academia before returning to her first love, visual art. Her work, informed by the study of religion and history, has explored the social practices and material culture of mourning through a variety of materials such as funeral clothing and human hair.
She has shown her work nationally, most recently in solo and group exhibitions in Brooklyn. Her work has been featured in The Jealous Curator, Venison Magazine, and the Society for Domestic Museology.
Website: spencermerolla.com
Instagram: @spencermerolla
On View
March 4–April 22
Location
The Glass House
51 Bergen St.
Gallery Hours
Thursday–Saturday, 1–7pm
Sunday, 1–5pm