REVIEW, UNDERMAIN “It is What is Not Yet Known”, FEBRUARY 2021
Her materials are informed by the city in which she works, reflected in the type of discarded articles that others deemed unusable. Celeste’s pieces in this exhibition are part of a larger body of work entitled “I Find This Stable.” This specific series is concerned with the physical embodiment of sustainable practices and our collective environmental crisis. But the artist’s ability to see potential within the outcast gives us a glimpse into the transformative power of sculpture. Repurposing these materials provides a framework to reimagine the temporality of material in a capitalist system.
OP-ED, RUCKUS The Future of Public Memory: Reimagining Louisville’s Public Spaces Entrenched in the Legacy of Police Violence, JUNE 2020
In Louisville on March 13th, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black EMT, was murdered in her home by Louisville Metro Police Department during a no-knock warrant. Although this was not the first incident of racial injustice in Louisville, the loss of Breonna Taylor’s life has forever changed the public landscape of the city. As thousands of protesters in Kentucky, and across the world, have made clear: we can no longer be complicit, remaining silent inside of white supremacist public spaces and policies.
ESSAY, BELT MAGAZINE The Potential of Public Art, OCTOBER 2019
Monuments have never been more critical to the identity of communities. Too often, municipalities and community groups are intoxicated by a nostalgia of place, and we are in desperate need of difficult conversations around confrontation and, ultimately, reparation. But as artists and communities confront the histories of violence and racism embedded in Indiana, this work should not—and cannot—be at the expense of those whose lives are so intimately affected. The work must embrace the self-reflection needed to confront white supremacy without reiterating the historical traumas of Black people and communities of color.
ESSAY, RUCKUS Removal as Muse, OCTOBER 2019
As an artist working in the built environment, I'm trying to dismantle my whiteness and unpack the trauma of cultural singularity of designed spaces. White artists, designers, and architects have dominated the field in public space design. The work of white artists addressing topics of race, cultural identity, and the built environment have historically used the perspective of the white gaze through the lens of otherness. A thorough investigation, internally, of whiteness is needed, without exploiting the trauma, terror, or pain of marginalized communities.
REVIEW, RUCKUS Exhibit Columbus, SEPTEMBER 2019
Fast forward 50 years, the architectural momentum has halted significantly. The surrealness recalls the dystopian modernity of J.G Ballard's novels—visitors exit off the highway after miles and miles of cornfields and farms and then pull into a small town with international-recognized architecture everywhere. It's like a set piece for a 1970's sci-fi film that never got completed—equally eerie and fascinating. Exhibit Columbus comes along as a way to celebrate contemporary design and engage in architectural preservation.