An interview with artist Nora Chellew during her exhibit The Salt That You Bring to the Table at Brick Aux Gallery, November 14, 2024 – January 29, 2025. In conversation with Garrick Neuner, Fall 2024 Intern.
How did the spatial configuration of Brick Aux Gallery play into your design of the exhibition? How did the work evolve from leaving your studio to arriving at the Gallery?
I definitely view this body of work as installation work, responsive to the configuration of the space it is in, and only complete in its presentation. The Dowsing Drawing artworks can’t drape their ribbons or make their charcoal drawings until they are mounted on the wall. Pellicle (Easter Mold) combines two isolated components – an LED circuit and scoby cast – that do not connect until they are installed.
In terms of the gallery itself, I appreciate that Brick Aux is both intimate and expansive. This duality suits the works, which are petite but dramatic, and best seen as a collection with plenty of breathing room. The gallery also has nooks and crannies afforded by relief columns that I knew I wanted to play with. Aux is not a perfectly rectangular place, and I didn’t want to pretend that it was. Responding to architectural nuances is much more fun and allows the overall effect to feel more intentional.
What artists do you find this work in conversation with?
Honestly, I would love to hear other folks’ take on this, who have more distance from the work. But for me, two artists that come to mind are Sarah Sze and Adriana Ramić. I think that this show resonates with Sze’s pendulum works, which are both witchy and robotic. And I haven’t stopped thinking about Ramić’s Standard Human Mesh Recovery System exhibition, which feels like it could befriend this work through the shared notion of creating a lab-kitchen space. In general, I often think about Lara Favaretto’s crumbling confetti cube works, which capture ideas of passive performance and the potential energy of objects.
I also hope that my pieces are in conversation with the creative outputs of those who have worked with me over the course of this show. It’s been a privilege and a pleasure to invite makers into this exhibition space, and to develop ideas together or in tandem. Lameesa Mallic, an amazing designer, worked with me to create a show title font and a post card design that encapsulates the energy of this exhibition perfectly. Grace Patterson, jack of all trades, has interests in ritual that overlap with mine: I’m so happy that she could expertly lead the pomander-making workshop we held on December 15th.
I love your description of your process as “sorcery and experimentation!” At what points in your process did you have specific end goals in mind, and at what points were you inspired by unexpected outcomes? At what points did the process feel traditionally sculptural?
Thank you! Experimentation is absolutely a part of the process for me. I have the grandest failures and the most lush discoveries while I’m testing something new. I sketch my ideas frequently and usually have a clear vision of what my intentions are. That said, I am always and forever using new mediums. By testing new ingredients, I assume a certain level of unpredictability when making.
The entire process has felt sculptural to me. For instance, while this exhibition incorporates nontraditional materials, there is a throughline of mold making and casting, seen in Caudal Pes (Pomander) Stage Right, Caudal Pes (Pomander) Stage Left, Sconce (Pomander), and Pellicule (Easter Mold). This is where I have to shout out Jude Tallichet, my moldmaking and casting mentor and friend. She has taught me so much about process, and I’m always inspired by her artwork.
I’m happy to give examples of failures I experienced while putting together this show, because I think it’s important that we don’t expect success in our first attempts. Pellicle (Easter Mold) is the third iteration of a kombucha scoby cast. The first version looked like a haunted object from a horror movie; the second looked like an excretion. Third time really was the charm for this sculpture. Developing the circuitry for the Dowsing Drawing egg works was also a journey. I initially built a completely different type of circuit. I don’t regularly mess around with microcomputers, so this took time to figure out. Once it was finally complete, it did not move the eggs in the way I wanted it to. Without the welcoming community at NYC Resistor, especially Max Marrone, I couldn’t have made a big shift to a new type of circuit (complete with 3D printed components) that ended up being the winner.
With your intensive experimentation in food mediums, how has your perception of these products changed? Can you look at an egg the same way again?
I think that I am constantly looking at materials and seeing their possibilities. I’ve long felt that all objects, edible or otherwise, are full of potential. Having grown up in a Brooklyn neighborhood that marks the passing of seasons and holidays through food, I’ve recognized ingredients as instruments of decoration and celebration from a young age. From braided Easter bread (with actual whole shelled eggs in it) to marzipan lambs, to pizzelle cookies printed like snowflakes, I’ve been privy to a whole world of edible sculpture from my earliest days.
Thank you so much! Lastly, I want to ask about the title of the exhibition. How did you decide on a mondegreen, or mistaken lyric, from a Lana del Rey song?
I enjoy a fun, playful title, and this mistaken Lana del Rey lyric is just that, in my eyes. Beyond that, I knew that this phrase was exactly the combination of elements I was searching for in this show title. It includes “salt,” a food-word for preservation and flavoring; “bring” an action word suggesting movement; and “table” a space for gathering, exhibiting, and enjoying a finished product. It’s witchy, new, old, collective, and culinary. Another suitable title would have been Stone Soup, with reference to the incredible fable my friend Jurrell Lewis recently reminded me of.
