“There's No Place Like Home,” Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY  2015

For There’s No Place Like Home, Black presents a handmade recreation of a room with distinct characteristics of a home—chairs, stacks of books, flowers, a newspaper, a hat and bag rack, to name a few items. Yet the installation is not a mere replica of a domestic space, but rather a collection of possessions from the artist’s past and present, and fictitious objects born out of her desires. Each object in the installation has particular significance to the artist, and combined, the items build a complex visual autobiography of Black’s personal experiences, revealing a keyhole glimpse into the artist’s identity. This act of recreating each object by hand allows the artist to deconstruct and code her identities as a daughter, a lesbian, an artist, a mother, and a fan of pop culture, integrating these into her compositions. Black explains, “I have always been interested in looking back at what has influenced me and how I came to be who I am now. I guess instead of looking out I am looking in. I think by that it made sense to make the show become an installation of a room.”

In Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; the viewer is introduced to a handmade paper and acrylic replica of Judy Blume’s coming of age novel as a reference to Black’s memories of adolescence. Other books the artist has recreated include Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and Ann Bannon’s lesbian pulp fiction novel Odd Girl Out, both read and appreciated by the artist. Another work of particular importance to Black is Marriage, referencing the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality. Together, the works build a sincere impression and a sense of the artist’s social and political values.

http://joshualinergallery.com/exhibitions/black_theres_no_place_like_home_october_15_2015