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Apollinaria Broche | In the distance there was a glimpse
Marianne Boesky Gallery
January 24 – February 24, 2024
Drawing inspiration from both art history and fairy tales, Broche skillfully constructs peculiar and whimsical landscapes inhabited by fantastical flowers and shape-shifting mythical creatures. Employing ceramic and bronze as her primary mediums, Broche’s artistic practice draws from a diverse array of visual influences, ranging from Fra Angelico’s luminous mysticism to the emotive romanticism of Henry Fuseli, Leonora Carrington’s sacred surrealism, and the cinematic visions of David Lynch and Dario Argento. Within this amalgamation of established symbols and references, Broche weaves immersive dreamscapes and escapist universes, guided by a logic known solely to the artist. Her weighty ceramic flowers, adorned with richly symbolic decorations, rest on ornate bronze stems and hang from climbing bronze vines, creating a mythologically charged narrative where figures enact uncertain myths, transforming into animals or melting out of snail shells.
However, beneath the enchanting facade of Broche’s fantasy garden, a darker undercurrent emerges. Snakes slither up bronze flower stems, cracks appear in clay bodies, fairy wings disintegrate, and phantoms emerge from walls, introducing elements of inescapable cruelty and violence. The delicate dream transforms into a lurid nightmare as signs of pain and danger punctuate Broche’s carefully crafted illusions. This tension between the strength of bronze and the fragility of ceramic serves as a poignant metaphor for the dichotomy between violence and beauty within her art.
Broche’s exploration of violence and cruelty becomes explicitly apparent in “The Peace Room is closed for renovation,” a monumental installation inspired by a thwarted visit to the Sala della Pace in Siena, Italy, shortly after Russia’s escalation of the war in Ukraine. The Sala della Pace, home to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco “The Allegory of Good and Bad Government,” became the focal point of Broche’s artistic response. The installation, comprised of clay relief forms adorned with silver and precious gemstones, portrays a cascading wall of destruction, featuring daggers, unidentifiable creatures, and fragments of shattered brick walls. At the center, a hooded, ghost-like figure looms over the chaos, connected to a ceramic woman shackled to the floor—a symbolic representation of Justice scorned. Broche’s political allegory delves into the consequences of poor government and censorship, echoing her unease with a world on the brink of collapse. Even within her ostensibly personal mythological realm, Broche insists on confronting the harsh realities of oppression and cruelty, reminding viewers that escape from the pervasive decay of the world is an elusive fantasy.
