Two things I did not expect to have happened as I rolled up to The Craig Gallery in Alderney Landing this week: to walk a red carpet and to receive an award (albeit one I gave myself).
But that’s the experience everyone will get at Celine Gabrielle’s new art show, I’M A WINNER/LOSER BABY—a playful installation that challenges our conception of success and how that ties to our identity and sense of self.
“In pop culture and in the media, we’re always fed this idea of do more, be more, be more successful. It’s like whatever we do, it’s not enough. And I want to challenge that idea. What even is ‘enough,’” says Gabrielle.
You begin by walking a short red carpet while lights flash in your eyes as a soundtrack alternates between cheering and jeering, capturing the fickle nature of life in the limelight. Some days they love you, some days they hate you. That’s showbiz, kid.
“When you walk in, it's glamorous—everyone is looking at you and the bright lights are on you—but at the same time, it’s kind of disorienting,” says Gabrielle. “It’s playing with the duality of wanting something. But when you have that thing, when you’re in the spotlight, it’s nerve-wracking and uncomfortable.”
Once you’ve been fully disconcerted by the lights and noise, you enter a narrow hallway filled on either side with dozens of impossibly sparkly trophies. As you take them in, you realize that these are not ordinary awards for things like cheerleading, golf or math—although they once were.
“There are over a hundred trophies and they are all sourced from people that have either donated them to me or I got them at thrift stores,” says Gabrielle. “A lot of them are my own, but I’ve given all of them a new life.”
The plaques on the trophies are engraved with things like: “Queen of the Best Resting Bitch Face,” “Overly Opinionated Overlord,” “All-Star Crisis Creator” and “Guilty Pleasure Procurement Pro.” These may or may not be a sampler of the ones that I related most closely to. And that’s the fun part; reading, relating and laughing. That’s what Gabrielle is hoping people will do.
“A lot of them are just things that go on inside my brain and I wanted to switch it up,” says Gabrielle. “Like I’m really good at procrastinating, so I gave myself an award for that. Maybe we should be proud of some of the weird quirks that we have or ‘flaws’ that we always try to hide. Give yourself a trophy!”
The trophies themselves are symbolic of how fleeting success is. This thing that was awarded to you and meant so much at one point ends up being a discarded hunk of plastic later. One of the trophies, Gabrielle points out, is a huge one that her daughter won for dance. It was the highlight of her whole life at the time and now it’s so meaningless, she discarded it (in the name of art).
Through the installation, Gabrielle is asking us to challenge what society tells us we should or shouldn’t take pride in. It’s about embracing all of ourselves; of celebrating all the parts of being necessarily and fundamentally imperfect humans.
And what better way to celebrate than with sparkles?
“The trophies are all painted crazy colours, have tons of sparkles and weird toppers,” says Gabrielle. “I feel like the riot of colour and glitter is also what’s going on inside my head. My brain is always ping-ponging around; there’s always so much to look at and so much to think about, so I wanted the space to represent how bonkers things are.”
As I’m embracing the over-stimulation and getting lost exploring all of the unique (and hilarious) awards, I’m so happy that I’m not looking at oil paintings, which was what she originally pitched The Craig as the idea for her show. The installation was a later-in-the-process pivot, kind of like Gabrielle’s career in art.
“I attended an arts high school in Ottawa and then wanted to pursue the professional arts at NSCAD actually, but the cost was just too high at the time,” says Gabrielle. “I put the art on hold for 20 years while I raised a family and owned my own day spa business where I worked as an aesthetician.”
A fortuitous (in hindsight) wrist injury meant that she physically was no longer able to work in the beauty space, so she had to start thinking about her next move. It was kind of a no-brainer.
“My whole life, all I talked about was art, art, art,” says Gabrielle. “My husband said, ‘now that you have the time and space, why don’t you actually start doing it.’”
In her younger years, Gabrielle used water colours and other non-toxic paints, but in her renaissance, she moved into oils. Her paintings were successful but leaned commercial—eventually, she became antsy to push the boundaries more; to lean into the weird and the wonderful.
“I had this idea percolating for a while and I pitched it to The Craig as paintings,” said Gabrielle. “When they contacted me to see if I was still good to go with the show, I was like ‘yeah, but I switched up my idea and, can I do an installation now?’”
The answer was no. No, she could not.
That answer wouldn’t do, so Gabrielle put flesh on the bones of the idea through a floor plan, comprehensive layout and sketches. Eventually, they relented and the rest—as they say—is history.
“Celine just had a lot of tenacity and laid out her plan, explained how she would get it done and said she’d take all the responsibility,” says Megan Hosmer, manager of The Craig Gallery. “The board just couldn’t refuse her at that point because she had so clearly laid it out. She said it was all part of her creative process and we just couldn’t argue with it.”
I’ve finished ogling the trophies—identifying which should be awarded to all the people I know—and I emerge into a stark white area. It takes my eyes a minute to adjust after the visual assault of neon and sparkles. On a desk, there are small certificates where—taking inspiration from the trophies—visitors can give themselves their own awards and then post them on a large white wall. The idea is to fill the wall over the course of the exhibit with a bevy of secret truths.
Gabrielle asks if I want to be the first to post my own certificate and it doesn’t take me long to fess up and create mine: “Over-sharer of the year.”
I'M A WINNER/LOSER BABY opens August 29 and runs until September 29 at The Craig Gallery, 2 Ochterloney Street, Alderney Landing, Dartmouth. Admission is free, and all are welcome to explore the intersection of art, humour and societal commentary.
