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Democratic Sculpture 7

The Neubauer Collegium, Chicago

Curator: Dieter Roelstrate

Gelitin’s exhibition consists of a major new interactive installation titled Democratic Sculpture 7. It is part of an ongoing series of works, many of which are typically executed in the foursome’s signature heterodox materials (mud, sweat, urine, etc.), that solicit activation through sharing. Democratic Sculpture 7 was developed during their exhibition at the artist-run gallery O’Flaherty’s in New York in the spring of 2023, and the sculpture (made up primarily of colorful discarded clothing) does indeed look an awful lot like a quintessentially New York slice of pizza—a lot thinner than Chicago’s “deep dish” variant on the classic Neapolitan staple, which for some years now, has featured prominently on UNESCO’s ever-expanding list of “intangible cultural heritage.”
Five holes in the sculpture allow the viewer to poke their head through the pizza’s toppings, thereby turning the static object into a conversation piece – proverbial food for all manner of thought, from the aesthetic of the pie chart or the history of human migration as told through foodstuffs to the politics of food. The latter is a matter of real concern in some of Chicago's underserved neighborhoods (“food deserts”), some of which feature prominently in this edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, curated by local art collective Floating Museum and titled This Is a Rehearsal.
Dieter Roelstrate