1/20/2023-4/2/2023

Lydia Ricci

Some Things Last a Long Time

If lives are measured by cultural milestones, they often seem to be consumed by mundane tasks and obligations that pass unnoticed. Yet, one might argue that such unremarkable moments contain poignancy, desire, humor, and resilience.

Lydia Ricci’s constructions—fabricated from the artist’s obsessive amassing of her family’s documents and scraps—and animated vignettes playfully glorify life in the interstices, transforming the detritus of the everyday into tributes to the rich messiness of quotidian rituals. Ricci’s dramatic manipulation of scale (a supermarket shopping cart that fits into an outstretched palm or a lacy bra that stretches across an expanse of wall) invites visitors to contemplate the outsized role of memory in shaping perceptions of monumentality, nostalgia, and commemoration.

A site-specific studio, temporarily installed in the museum’s Front Gallery, will serve as Ricci’s workspace during specially scheduled hours throughout the run of the exhibition.