Inside Out features a selection of 17 paper-and-wood constructions of interior spaces in which Clibanoff has lived, worked, studied and admired, from Philadelphia to Ireland and Italy. A Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship enabled Clibanoff to work for several months in 2004 and again in 2006 in Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland, where she found inspiration in the buildings designed by Peter Maxwell, the foundation’s co-founder. It was from drawings made since 2004 – many of which were begun during her Ballinglen Fellowship – that the artist’s three-dimensional work evolved. These “intimately scaled, vacant interiors are intended to convey the complexity and mystery of their subjects,” remarks Clibanoff. In addition to sculpture, Inside Out includes two large-scale drawings that evolved into 3D constructions, as well as 13 drawn portraits of the artist’s family and friends wearing pandemic masks hand-made by Clibanoff, which are meant to document the experience of this challenging time. Collectively, the work invites viewers to reflect on the past unprecedented year during which people from all over the world have endured life confined to their homes and been confronted with faces protected and disguised by face coverings. It is perhaps the minimalism and emptiness of the 3D spaces Clibanoff has created combined with the partially revealed faces in her portraits that create a sense of tension and uncertainty to which we can all relate. And yet, beneath it all is an incredible sense of beauty, order, care and curiosity for viewers to both enjoy and explore.
