BY SARAH DIVER

The tinted windows of Holding Contemporary cast a sepia glow into the gallery, evoking the amber tones reminiscent of an old photograph or Hollywood Western. Familiar objects like pliers, wrench and other hand tools, small brooms, a portable cooler, and a worktable are positioned alongside hand-hewn ceramic and wood sculptures, dice, charms, and other mementos. A mint green Exacto knife, smudged with the oil of someone’s repeated touch, sits level with Saw, 2022, an impractical ceramic serrated blade, its wooden handle pocked from use. Fishing mobile, 2019, delicately balances a frayed piece of rope, a fishing lure, and a seashell that hangs near the front window. Speckled glazed ceramic head-like forms sit atop iron rods and plinths made of walnut and plywood in Denim, Lunch, and Cement, all 2022. Fool’s Gold by Jodie Cavalier is notably personal, adorned with historied belongings and careful aesthetic decision-making; every object in the installation is attentively placed.

The trinkets and handmade tools from her late grandfather Gabriel Rico’s backyard workspace are creative entry points to further construct a vocabulary of grief, intimacy, and longing in objects, both handmade and archival. A handmade rake Rico fashioned during his lifetime is recreated in ceramic with a majolica-like glaze in Claw, 2022, alongside Wash, 2022, the embodiment of washrags were often found on and around Rico’s workbench. These pieces offer a metaphor and literalize her process of remembering and mourning, reclaiming them in tribute. The installation of work is intimate and cohesive; items are placed on tables, behind walls, propped on the floor, and hung at various eye levels in the space without labels — instead, inviting viewers to encounter each work relationally. 

Against the wall is a raw wooden worktable, and a pair of white calfskin work gloves conceal a lottery ticket. A steel bench vise clamps a thick stack of scratch-off lotto tickets on one side, and on the other, an iridescent clamshell holds a handful of poker chips. The signs of repeated usage etched into the weathering of the clamp, the wear of the gloves, and even the tattered edges of the lottery tickets – bought faithfully judging by the quantity – reveal the consistency, familiarity, and conjure hope for a lucky day. Additionally, Good Luck (horseshoe), 2022, another handmade ceramic sculpture re-creation hangs on the opposite wall as a real horseshoe Rico owned. Is this Cavalier’s attempt at realizing her unfulfilled desire of luck for her grandfather?

Multiple generations of hands and hope materialized. Rico's imprints are recorded in the materiality of the items from his workshop. Similarly, Cavalier's clay pieces record her touch. A parallel between the granddaughter artist in her studio and the tinkerer-grandfather in his workshop. This duality is echoed throughout the exhibition; Cavalier's handmade creations are juxtaposed next to and alongside her grandfather's belongings and tools. We discern these possessions, knickknacks, and gadgets are rife with personal meaning.

This gesture becomes further complicated through the recursion of the same objects as symbols throughout the exhibition while pointing to the unique properties of clay as a container for memory. Leather work gloves reappear in Glove, 2022, where a slab of earthenware was pressed onto a single glove and glazed a vibrant blue. Its essence is preserved only through the imprint left on the clay's surface. This is not unlike our passage from life into death; each of us becomes only an imprint in the minds of our loved ones who survive us. 

There is slippage and imperfection in translation; in the same way, our memories fade over time. Bolo Lace, 2022, captures the intricacies of this aspect. A doily-turned-shop-rag is preserved using a ceramic slab process; raw clay is rolled under a heavy press, generating a consistent thickness sheet. The texture it leaves after being smeared on the surface of the clay appears snakeskin. Bolo Lace and Glove are hung on the wall with leather cord, recalling the namesake formalwear from the Southwest. 

Variations on the same typologies of an object create nuance through iteration; Cavalier repeats using a ceramic vessel on top of an iron rod. In Cement, the sculpture is reminiscent of a burrito; in Lunch, it is more likened to a sandwich when placed on a vintage cooler-turned-pedestal. Denim references a pant leg showcasing the texture of that fabric embossed and archived in clay on top of a basket. These mundane versions turn into a gold nugget in Goldmine, a literalization of the proverbial rags-to-riches narrative, the American Dream in all its impossibility, and more specific to the artist's grandfather, the dream of "making it big" and finally getting the life-changing winning lotto ticket. Further emphasis is on the parallel between language and memory with the works on paper. In P-PA-PAA, 2022 where words morph and recur, creating rhythm and new meaning (papa? Pa pa pa pa?). Similarly, in the risograph print Rich, 2022, we see the word "Rich" repeated in columns, segmented by dollar signs, and terminating in her grandfather's last name. 

Fool's Gold epitomizes Cavalier's investigation into language and memory, loss and reward, fantasy and reality, and the distortions and unrealized potentials between each. Cavalier poetically captures the impossibility of memory through repetition and iteration. Keepsakes from her grandfather's workshop are recreated, and Cavalier's touch, sorrow, and bereavement are ossified in clay. This body of work mines the mistranslations in remembrance through objecthood, giving them a place to not only exist but be honored. The exhibition uses repetition of language, both literal and visual. Cavalier's uniquely personal visual lexicon and collection of work is a reminder that memories wear and fade through use; in efforts to hold onto and treasure them, there is unpredictability, empathy, and humor in recollection. Similarly, a life spent laboring for the promise of wealth in this country, only a lucky lottery ticket away, could also be likened to that same unattainable promise of striking gold.

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Fool’s Gold by Jodie Cavalier is on view at Holding Contemporary from June 3 through July 30th.

All images courtesy of Holding Contemporary, photos by Mario Gallucci.

Sarah Diver is a writer and curator based in Portland, Oregon. Her critical writing has been published by Denny Dimin Gallery, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, and Storm King Art Center, among other publications. Diver completed her Master’s degree at Columbia University with an emphasis in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies in 2016.