ELeanor ALdrich
Hair Shirt
SPRING/BREAK Art Fair
Booth A1
Curated by Jacob Rhodes
May 6 – May 12, 2025
Opening Reception: May 6, 6-8
TICKETS
In Eleanor’s own words:
The subject matter in this body of work is primarily taken from Nancy Drew and other similar book covers; the girl sleuth is posed partially mugging for the viewer, and partially involved in her surroundings. I use a grooved trowel to rake paint into cross-contours to form female torsos, limbs, and hair. The immediacy of this technique pushes against traditional associations of slowly built up oil paint, but retains its richness. The thickness and illusion of form this creates belies the fact that there is no skin or body— just the textures of hair and clothing, and the body of the paint. Though she is an active participant and driving force in the stories; on the cover image she is always a victim or bystander. Her meetings with unknown spaces, shadows of strangers, and even ghosts function as kitchy metaphors for my own anxieties. Like traditional images of girls and women in art she is a subject/object on unfriendly ground. In my work the subject is in quiet rebellion— the illusion of form attracts the viewer but offers an external shell in lieu of flesh, and there is a feeling of excess and an element of risk that hints at barely controlled femininity.
