Rachel Libeskind_Windows- Landscape (Four Landscapes)

Written by Ema Kojić
Copyedited by Chloë Rain
Photo Edited by Yanting Chen

Artist Rachel Libeskind’s second exhibition at the Signs and Symbols Art Gallery, Transparent Things, is open from September 7th to October 29th. The exhibition contains a showcase of Libeskind’s newest collection of work: Windows.

Although she was born in Milan, Libeskind was raised in Berlin, Germany. She went on to earn an education in the United States, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree at Harvard University. Libeskind is a multidisciplinary artist, working in both New York and Berlin now.

Libeskind’s multidisciplinary work often combines contrasting types of arts. She has united things like performance, video, collage, and installation. Her work has continuously been able to create its own meaning, unique from any other. The artist blends together unexpected themes, aesthetics, images, and ideas that produce a contrast that emphasizes spaces and nonuniformity within the piece.

Located on the Lower East Side, Signs and Symbols is a contemporary art gallery that has featured two of Libeskind’s exhibitions so far. The Transparent Things exhibition is made of the artist’s most recent work Windows.

The exhibition consists of a series of photo-assemblages from Windows. In each of these “windows,” there is a collage of images, colors, and materials.

“Each work is a mirror, a window, a portal — a transparent thing, ‘through which the past shines.’” - Rachel Libeskind, Berlin 2022.

In the piece Windows: Landscape seen above, Libeskind uses scanned collage on stretcher bars, soft PVC, staples, printed silicone, acrylic paint as well as superglue. This piece features clouds, fields, and a sudden contrast with a red rectangular image on the left side, as well as an image of houses in the middle towards the left side.

Rachel Libeskind_Windows- Man vs Tiger (Tigress)

Libeskind’s piece Windows: Man vs. Tiger (Tigress) features images that, when put together in a collage, create the tiger. There is an image of what seems to be the silhouette of a man next to a fire hydrant, carrying an umbrella. The contrast of the black and white in this upper right corner is vivid. In the top left corner, there is an image of grass between trees. She also uses similar materials on this piece; it consists of scanned collage on stretcher bars once again, soft PVC, staples, printed silicone and acrylic paint.

In another piece within the Windows collection, Milk Drop, Libeskind has a large expanded image of a liquid dropping on a surface. This image even captures the second of splashing when this substance dropped. On the top half of the piece, the artist shows a pattern-like image of milk. Libeskind used scanned collage on stretcher bars, soft PVC and staples to construct this piece.

Libeskind is able to use the contrast and unpredictability that her artwork brings to create this exhibition. Her collection of work fits together beautifully and brings forth a sense of darkness in these seemingly regular aspects of daily life. Rachel Libeskind’s collection Windows highlights a polarity in the emptiness white spaces in these images create.