Housewarming
Gardiner Museum
October 20, 2022–May 7, 2023
Opening October 20 at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto.
Enter a world at once familiar and uncanny. Montreal-based artist Karine Giboulo invites visitors into an immersive reimagining of her home. Brought to life by over 500 miniature polymer clay figures, this is no ordinary house. The figures tell stories that unfold inside, or on, household furniture, appliances, and everyday objects.
On the kitchen countertop, a line of people, masked and socially distanced, await access to a food bank. In the bedroom, the drawer of a dresser opens to reveal rows of masked factory workers hunched over industrial sewing machines. In the laundry room, a forgotten iron causes a forest fire, forcing animals to flee their natural habitat.
Housewarming is Giboulo’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020, and the waves of confinement and isolation that followed. It is a sculpted documentary of individual and collective experiences grounded in current events. With the pandemic as a constant presence, the colourful dioramas furnishing each room prompt reflection about the challenges we face as a society. Their stories amplify themes pertaining to connectedness and isolation, aging and care, labour and consumerism, the climate crisis, food insecurity, and housing instability. This intimate journey also unveils a personal narrative of self-acceptance and identity and transports us to the world of childhood, a critical period in the development of consciousness about the world.
The house is, above all, a framework for considering our place in the world and the connections that bind us. By transforming furniture, appliances, and other everyday objects into vehicles for storytelling, Giboulo invites us to contemplate how each domestic dwelling contains the world and its history, and how we appropriate the larger world through the material goods that fill our spaces. The home thus emerges as a portrait—at once a reflection and extension of the self.
Always direct and incisive, Giboulo’s microcosms articulate unexpected juxtapositions—playful and sad, realistic and absurd, poetic and political—prompting a range of emotions from delight to profound empathy. The more closely we look, the more we may recognize ourselves in the scenarios and their protagonists. Certainly, we will see our own homes differently.
Curated by Karine Tsoumis.
Programs and events
Artist talk with Karine Giboulo: October 20, 6–8pm,
Join artist Karine Giboulo and exhibition curator Karine Tsoumis for a discussion on the themes and stories that unfold in Giboulo’s playful yet urgent new exhibition.
Virtual artist talk with Karine Giboulo (French): November 3, 1–2pm, online via Zoom.
Curator tour with Karine Tsoumis: November 8, 1–2pm
Explore the exhibition with curator Karine Tsoumis.
Move, Make & Write (My Home): November 15, 5:30–7:30pm
Esther Maloney invites you to let your body engage somatically with the exhibition.
Move, Make & Write (My Environment): November 22, 5:30–7:30pm
With Esther Maloney, use clay and paper to explore your own stories and experiences.
Curator tour with Karine Tsoumis: November 22, 6–7pm
Explore the exhibition with curator Karine Tsoumis.
Figure making with Karine Giboulo: November 29, 6–7:30pm
Discover the versatility of working with polymer clay and express your own creativity.
Figure making with Karine Giboulo: November 30, 10:30am–12pm
Discover the versatility of working with polymer clay and express your own creativity.
Artist tour with Karine Giboulo: November 30, 1:30–2:30pm
Discover the exhibition alongside artist Karine Giboulo.
Figure making with Karine Giboulo: November 30, 6–7:30pm
Discover the versatility of working with polymer clay and express your own creativity.
Curator tour with Karine Tsoumis (French): December 6, 6–7pm
Explore the exhibition with curator Karine Tsoumis.
