On taking risks and expanding a community-based practice by entering into the practices of others.
Gabrielle Constantine first joined Ox-Bow as a fellow during the summer of 2023 where she was matched with the culinary department. There she spent twenty hours a week in the kitchen alongside the rest of the culinary team. The pairing dovetailed neatly with her practice, which in the past had included supper clubs and other hospitality-based initiatives. These drew experience from Constantine’s years-long work in the restaurant industry.
While at Ox-Bow, Constantine began to dream of ways she could continue to mix her culinary background into her practice. She schemed about a studio speakeasy and a collaborative mini-fridge gallery. She took special inspiration from her time in John Preus’s course “The World is One. The Human is Two: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Objects” for which she worked as a teaching assistant. During the course, Constantine made new conceptual breakthroughs in her work. “I don't know if that could have been worked out anywhere else besides Ox-Bow. I think it was the dynamic of me working through my tendencies of being a host and being a community person, but also the labor that goes with that, and [considering] how do we transfer those things into objects.” These curiosities ultimately manifested in an upholstered sculpture that explored the purpose of objects and their autonomy. As summer came to a close, Constantine had produced a number of physical sculptures, while many of her community-based projects were still taking up residence in her imagination.
If the summer of 2023 was Constantine’s incubator for socially engaged work, summer 2024 was the catalyst. While at a residency in Skowhegan, Constantine took action on several culinary projects rooted in hospitality. Fellow artist-in-residence Dylan Hausthor gave Constantine the push she needed, encouraging her to lean into spontaneity. As a team, the two artists assembled an impromptu bar in the bed of Hausthor’s decades-old Toyota truck. Constantine reflected, “It was nice to do the truck thing with Dylan, because they work very different than I do. They had a freedom in a space that I have a tendency to overthink because of my restaurant background. Working with Dylan felt really easy.” Via the truck bar, Constantine served up grilled cheese and Hausthor dolled out martinis. Throughout her nine weeks on campus, Constantine facilitated several other initiatives. A pop-up bar in her studio featured home brewed amaro and snacks. On a trip to the beach, Constantine and Hausther shucked oysters for the crowd. In tandem with a screening of Moonstruck, she produced a thematic pairing of homemade bread and olive oil.
Constantine also spent her nine weeks at Skowhegan indulging in her curiosity for others’ practices. “At a certain point, I stopped worrying about making enough… I just wanted to be around the people there.” This emphasis on immersion allowed Constantine to participate in a performance piece, join a filmmaker’s project, participate in photo shoots, and more. She described this decision as a conscious effort to “put herself in other people’s practices.”
After such a robust and active summer, Constantine has much to process. “I really have to sit with all these things and all these people that I’ve met and learned from. How do I take all of these things and put it into a place that I root in?” Constantine said. She hopes that her fall residency at Bemis will be a place to begin answering these questions. In a similar spirit, she intends to spend her residency making quilts, a fittingly reflective practice. “It feels like it’ll heal me a bit,” Constantine confessed, admitting that the traveling artist lifestyle has left a bit of wear. “It’s so fun, but it’s also really hard, this life. We have a crazy life,” Constantine said. In both her quilts and Constantine’s more ephemeral experiences, a similar spirit is conjured. At the heart of her practice is a commitment to hospitality, conversation, gathering, belonging and care.
Giving fake Tiffany, bought from the trunk of a Cadillac, to Rachel Cohen for her Bat Mitzvah. Microwaving lavash and string cheese for an after-school snack. Tending to a mustache and beard since 5th grade. Going to the AC Tropicana for weekend “getaways”. Watching Cher in Moonstruck every night before bed. Drinking milk from a martini glass. This is Constantine’s DNA. Gabrielle Constantine (1994) was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she received her double BFA in Sculpture and Fibers and Material studies at the Tyler School of Art (2017) and holds an MFA at The University of Texas of Austin (2023). Growing up in an Armenian Community and the restaurant industry has inexplicably informed her material, linguistic, and performative decisions surrounding her sculptures, installations, and gatherings. Alongside her more sculptural practice, Constantine has shared in cooking dinners and hosting gatherings with communities all over the country and internationally. She is consistently innovating new ways of gathering community through art and food.
This article was written by Shanley Poole, Engagement Liaison & Storyteller and was based on interviews conducted in June 2023 and August 2024.
Image List:
“Whether Sauce or Blood,” a sculpture created by Constantine at Ox-Bow.
Hausthor’s truck transformed into a bar.
Constantine and friends serving oysters.
Headshot of Constantine.
All images courtesy of the artist.