Cecilia Caldiera '23 Blurs Public and Private Spaces in Solo Exhibition

Visual Arts alumna Cecilia Caldiera ‘23 has unveiled her new solo exhibition, Our House, at Subtitled NYC. The exhibition comprises ten pieces on the walls and floors, furthering Caldiera's exploration of ritualistic encounters that blur the lines between public and private spheres.

Caldiera refers to this dynamic as "rogue spirituality,” a means by which everyone is part of the congregation, and people's emotional and spiritual lives and pasts are arranged on the street for everyone to see like a ghost bike memorializing a life no longer here. “Rogue spirituality,” explained Adriana Furlong and Moacir P. de Sá Pereira in the exhibition’s press release, “forces passersby collectively to feel an unknown loss, with no way to fill it.”

Using paper, steel, plastic and wax, transforming potential waste into art, Caldiera refashions these objects, hugging the contours of our environment, the materials imposing and inserting themselves into the various thoroughfares of public space, forcing the foot to find new pathways to get out of their way.

As Furlong and de Sá Pereira describe, the pieces are intentionally placed to hinder the viewer's movement, complicating direct access to some of the works. “What results is that the works, like an Earth Anchor, a giant candle column with a satellite on top, can't be ignored, or you’ll bump into them.” 

Our House is available for viewing through March 3, 2024. 

Cecilia Caldiera is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist whose work explores questions surrounding possible futures and repetitive pasts. She creates compositions using traces of industry that allude to bodies navigating space. She is currently a resident at Hercules Art Studio Program and teaches printmaking at Pratt Institute and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.