CHLOE WISE

@chloewise_

😻 OBSESSED! 😻 Really excited to present this She Curates interview with the one and only Chloe Wise! @CHLOEWISE_ 🥂

It was a real joy to speak to Chloe about her current exhibition with @alminereach and to check in with her “Adorable, perfect, handsome, snuggly, gorgeous, and brilliant” cats Pluto 🐈‍⬛ and Hans 🐈‍⬛ !

We discuss shrimp cocktails 🍤 with Dali, ideal conditions to paint, best advice and comprehending the pandemic.

Chloe’s wise is unlike any other. In this body of work presented with Almine Rech, she features frozen smiles and moments with friends and loved ones, as well as a fascination with food 🧈. (Check out that dripping Ceaser 🥬chandelier!)

“I must still carry on, like everyone, buying groceries, taking out the trash, forgetting about the statistic I just heard, etc.”

Chloe’s work is also presented in “Fantasy America” in @theandywarholmuseum until the end of August this year!

[images from Chloe and Almine Rech!]

THAT'S SO GOOD TO KNOW! SO, Starting with your exhibition, I’m curious as to if and how covid and isolation altered the way you prepared for the exhibition? Has it altered your practice?

Isolation removed the pesky external distraction of having a social life. Which I did used to have. I almost remember it..

I spent double the hours I normally would have spent painting, painting.

I FEEL THAT! I’ve seen you describe your exhibition as being about ‘indifference’. What do you mean by this?

I'm thinking of Indifference as a form of cognitive dissonance in the face of crises, indifference as a survival tool. If we were to truly internalize and comprehend the magnitude of loss and horror of, for example, the past year, we would be unable to function. think of the Stalin quote, "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic".

It seems that we choose, whether we are cognizant of it or not, apathy, as a means by which to justify the fact that we carry on, even while the unthinkable is just outside our window. The show must go on! So we carry on doing our normal day-to-day activities, we adapt to certain situations, we normalize hearing the statistics, because to live in a constant state of outrage would not be possible for survival. I have been grappling with this concept for the past year, as I feel very strong sadness and horror and outrage in the face of the pandemic, growing economic inequality, racial injustice, political insanity, and climate change, and yet, I must still carry on, like everyone, buying groceries, taking out the trash, forgetting about the statistic I just heard, etc.

So it's not a celebration of indifference, but I felt that making an exhibition at all ,during this time, was a bizarre task, I wasn't going to make art about the pandemic. I decided to make works that occupy that apathetic yet benign space, a smile frozen in 2020.

VERY APT AND POWERFUL AT THIS TIME. THE APATHY AND THE FROZEN TIME. Of course, a lot of your exhibition is about food. I wonder, if you could have a meal with any artist from any time, what would the meal be, with who, and why?

A shrimp cocktail with Dali.

GREAT ANSWER. SOME QUICK ONES HERE FOR YOU TO FINISH OFF! WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE PIECE IN YOUR CURRENT EXHIBITION?

I'll tell you that I want a salad sconce for myself!

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given, or would give?

Not to use white when painting portraits. I was told that ten years ago by my mentor, and I told him yesterday, I am only now just understanding that.

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THAT. Chloe what do you listen to while you work?

American history audiobooks.... and podcasts.

And what are your ideal conditions in your studio?

Cats.

And finally, do you collect artwork yourself? And if so, what are some of the jewels in your collection?

Work from friends.

CHLOE WISE: @chloewise_