Isabella Costabile at Almanac Inn

Artist: Isabella Costabile

Exhibition title: Measuring The Years With Things

Venue: Almanac Inn, Turin, Italy

Date: June 21 – August 26, 2023

Photography: Sebastiano Pellion, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Almanac Inn, London/Turin

Objects present information about time. They are accumulated during a person’s life and are eventually left to themselves in someway or another as change occurs. A worn appearance showing signs of rust and decay from outdoor exposure usually means they haven’t been used or maintained in sometime and already give indications about the changing state of their materials. Then again, if they’ve been kept well and are able to endure the passing of time, many household possessions can transmit knowledge about relationships and experiences over generations, so that the mind can not only imagine the past but perceive the past in the present and see a connection between the self and a broader dimension.

As in this case, whether discovered in parts of a family home that had not been given much attention, spotted on pathways and streets belonging to everyone and no one, or collected from leftover industrial materials – the information in these consumed objects eventually becomes less and less personal as the conditions surrounding them change and they no longer represent a habitual purpose related to a specific activity or experience. The meanings they carry multiply and are transformed as they are passed from person to person, surviving various circumstances that contribute to their fragility and process of decomposition.

Encounters with second-hand things have encouraged reflection about human presence and the different material possibilities and expectations that are associated to this complex form of existence. Being both individuals and representatives of a species, these things tell stories about the experiences shaping our humanity as ‘carriers’ ourselves of ideas and attitudes shared among families and distinct cultures.

In these compositions made from objects, aesthetic combinations are explored to communicate a hybrid nature and engage with numerous layers of reality and ways of seeing form. Along with the sculptures distributed in the space there are a few ceremonial objects produced by my mother Noella Costabile which are placed on tables she restored and painted. These ‘altars’ or ‘candelabras’ are activated for rituals and particular occasions, becoming participative elements in the exhibition. She is a Jamaican artist and a decorative restorer who has worked with handmade objects and used furniture since the beginning of the 90’s and has developed this practice into a family activity in collaboration with my father Maurizio. Having observed this practice and the detailed processes involved since I can remember, the ‘functional’ objects were selected to convey a feeling of the environment where the sculptures received energy and were constructed in.

– Isabella Costabile

Measuring the years with things is Isabella Costabile’s first solo exhibition in Turin. Costabile’s artistic research investigates the idea of cultural and material hybridity: in her practice, the use of discarded objects and materials assumes the purpose of a poetic and narrative device, in response to a necessity to reappropriate and reconfigure the present. The process of assembling and reinterpreting everyday elements – in consideration of their estrangement and the loss of their familiar character – leads to reflections on belonging and temporality, revealing itself as a way to formulate new imaginaries and meanings.

Almanac Inn is supported by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT and Regione Piemonte.

Isabella Costabile, Il ritrovo delle creature, 2023 Mixed media on manometer, iron rake, iron barrel cover, plastic tube, iron poles, alluminum tube, stainless steel bolts and screws, 167 x 68 x 68 cm