“Last Wash at Midnight” at Home Gallery and The Border Gallery

Chelsea Nader, Jaejoon Jang, Nicholas Oh and Jamie Martinez

February 12 – March 20, 2021

The Border Gallery is pleased to present Last Wash at Midnight. The ominous exhibition, evoking a laundromat, displays works by Chelsea Nader, Jaejoon Jang, Nicholas Oh and Jamie Martinez.

The Border is opening a laundromat at its 56 Bogart location called Last Wash at Midnight, where things don’t appear as they seem, but things, once unseen, begin to appear. We have hired the night shift and are excited to open our doors for you. The first wash is free! Come to the opening night on February 12th from 6 – 8:30 pm. Let me introduce you to our employees below.

Night Shift Worker (artist): Chelsea Nader’s distorted laundry machine considers the relationship between mothers and caretakers and the emotional and lonely toll of domestic practices. The conveniences that laundry machines provide resemble works that women traditionally perform–acts we all take for granted and often disregard as menial. The fatigued form of Nader’s sculpture is exhausted: “they are squeezed, rusted, leaking and used up,” that is until they break.

Night Shift Worker (artist): Jaejoon Jang’s works are poetic in their simplicity yet profound in their subtle obscurities. The broken clock—hastily secured with masking tape—and collars— manipulated only to show the top of dress shirts—are cheeky and charming. His treatment of objects is delicate and slight, yet, similarly to artists’ use of readymades in the 20th century, his works transcend our understanding of the familiar. Jang challenges our connection to items that have fixed purposes, which, in turn, questions the designated meanings they have in society. 

Night Shift Worker (artist): By laborious methods of 3D scanning, casting and mold-making, Nicholas Oh assembles chests that appear to be floating with the head almost grazing the ground. The expandable foam body parts reversely situated, aggressively question and confront the relationship between racial identity and skin color. Contending with his Korean heritage, he uses his sculptures to scrutinize the conflicting parallels of cultural incongruences and systemic oppression.

Manager (curator and artist): Jamie Martinez’s mystical floating replica clay hands, overlaid with a visionary spell, ask for permission to access the underworld. The permission spell, first written in English then translated using Mayan glyphs, is dedicated to the divine God A—the determiner. Martinez’s practice is devoted to preparing his soul for the underworld; his artworks act as channels to guide him into this unknown. The exhibition is a precursor to his journey, a place to wash your clothes (soul). 

*Social distance orders are mandated: two to three people are allowed in the space at once. Masks are required.*