Almine Rech Paris, Turenne is happy to current House is Not a Place, Jess Valice’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, on view by means of July 26, 2025.
On this exhibition, Jess Valice delves into the complicated and infrequently contradictory nature of dwelling, an idea that has lengthy fascinated philosophers and poets. As Nietzsche and Rilke explored, it may be a supply of consolation and belonging but in addition a realm of potential alienation. Her work grapples with this duality, reflecting on the craving for a protected haven alongside the potential for even acquainted locations to change into imbued with unease within the face of loss and alter. The artist actually invitations us into a novel set up, a illustration of her bed room, the last word image of sanctuary. Bathed in deep maroon-colored, the room evokes the primal security of a womb or the rawness of an open wound. Reverse the mattress, a video projection presents a sun-drenched yard the place the fragile chirping of birds creates an environment of exterior peace and serenity – it’s the precise view from her window.
The artist actually invitations us into a novel set up, a illustration of her bed room, the last word image of sanctuary. Bathed in deep maroon-colored, the room evokes the primal security of a womb or the rawness of an open wound. Reverse the mattress, a video projection presents a sun-drenched yard the place the fragile chirping of birds creates an environment of exterior peace and serenity – it’s the precise view from her window. This tranquil second is an interaction between exterior peacefulness and inside numbness. Guests are invited to take a seat on the mattress, entering into the artist’s perspective. This dialogue continues in an adjoining room, the place a diptych self-portrait captures her mendacity in mattress, additional probing this rigidity. The asymmetrical composition exacerbates the loneliness and isolation that observe a traumatic occasion. Unfinished strains on a pillow, resembling cell bars, evoke the sensation of being trapped in grief, whereas a rust-colored stain on the mattress creates a disturbing echo of against the law scene — une petite mort (French for ‘a bit loss of life’) that speaks to each the tip of a relationship and the intimacy it as soon as held.
“Dwelling has by no means felt like a set place,” Valice confesses. “I’ve all the time carried a way of displacement with me.”1
Latest occasions, together with this yr’s Los Angeles fires, the passing of her father, and the dissolution of a romantic relationship, have collectively intensified the artist’s quest to seek out what provides us emotional grounding, compelling a confrontation with the basic values that stay when bodily areas and intimate bonds are severed. A part of it’s friendships, showcased by portraits of her shut associates, every one primarily based on photographic references captured by her childhood good friend, Jack Tashdjian. In Kuba II the younger man with blond curly hair towards a vibrant crimson background acts as a beacon of vivid vitality inside her in any other case extra monochromatic work, hinting at how the presence of family members can illuminate the spirit with heat.
But, Kuba’s sanpaku eyes — a Japanese time period for eyes with seen decrease sclera, suggesting imbalance — add a layer of intrigue to his in any other case vibrant presence. This characteristic, which the artist instinctively captures in all her topics, presents a glimpse into an individual’s lived experiences, present struggles, or quiet melancholy. She feels deeply drawn to those people in actual life, usually forming easy connections that evolve into real friendships, as if these eyes have been talking for themselves and revealing one’s sensitivity.
Every portray invitations us into an open-ended narrative, resonating with Francis Bacon’s notion that “the job of the artist is all the time to deepen the thriller.” Valice’s figures seem each tormented and introspective, as if caught in fleeting moments of the previous. Their our bodies and faces, subtly distorted, embody the way in which actuality itself warps underneath the load of serious life occasions. In works like The Pal Who Brings You Congee, their fragility is palpable — nude and uncovered, but silently wrestling with their very own ideas. When making this piece the artist was fascinated with Joan Didion’s The Yr of Magical Considering, significantly the passage within the e-book describing a good friend bringing her congee (a Chinese language rice porridge). This act of kindness displays how profoundly significant such easy gestures could be when navigating the overwhelming bodily and emotional results of grief.
Within the nonetheless life Hen Broth, a uncooked rooster is displayed subsequent to a metal pot with scientific detachment, its flesh is a stark metaphor for the artist’s personal vulnerability, laid naked for the viewer. However it’s the implied scent that’s right here to really transport: the faint, anticipatory aroma of simmering broth, a scent that adheres to childhood kitchens and sickbed comforts. Even for the artist as a vegetarian, it unlocks a floodgate of associations and feelings — a soothing sensation that spreads past the abdomen, a sense of being cared for, of returning to a place of birth. It’s her Madeleine de Proust — a sensory set off for vivid reminiscences that Marcel Proust describes in In Search of Misplaced Time.
Pushed by her lifelong fascination with psychology and neuroscience, she passionately explores the multifaceted nature of dwelling, bringing us into her deeply private doubts and existential inquiries. Recalling Rilke’s idea of “world-innerspace” or “the home that stands inside me” transcends physicality, representing a way of belonging rooted in tradition, faith, or private expertise.
‘House is Not a Place’ encourages us to confront our internal shadows, to seek out magnificence in fragmented reminiscences and to find that dwelling could be discovered within the echoes of the previous and the whispers of the guts.
— Lisa Boudet, author and curator
