{"product_id":"after-my-first-communion-we-went-to-the-bodega-installation","title":"“after my first communion, we went to the bodega” (installation)","description":"\u003cp\u003e2024\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDESCRIPTION: Mixed-media sculptural installation. Composed of foam trays, plastic wrap, leather\u003cbr\u003eglove, gold enamel Catholic medallions, glass bottles with metal lids, eucalyptus oil, sorrel tea serum,\u003cbr\u003ecommunion wafers, communion cups, rosary beads, hair pick, comb, brush, plastic clips, gold hoop\u003cbr\u003eearrings, Polaroids, and astroturf, this work constructs an altar from the materials of both sacred ritual\u003cbr\u003eand everyday life.\u003cbr\u003eDrawing from a childhood spent in Catholic school in Manhattan, the installation reflects on early\u003cbr\u003eencounters with ceremony, hierarchy, and access. The artist recalls moving through gilded\u003cbr\u003einteriors—dancing in pews, wandering beneath gothic arches, surrounded by beauty that could be\u003cbr\u003eseen but not touched. The altar, as a site of power, remained just out of reach.\u003cbr\u003eIn response, this work reclaims and reconstructs that space. It builds an altar not from sanctioned\u003cbr\u003eobjects, but from those that hold personal and cultural significance—items of care, adornment,\u003cbr\u003edomestic labor, and memory. Influenced by the practices of mi abuelita, the act of assembling\u003cbr\u003ebecomes devotional: a way of honoring the sacred within the everyday.\u003cbr\u003eThe meeting of materials—plastic and gold, organic and manufactured, disposable and\u003cbr\u003eprecious—collapses distinctions between the holy and the mundane. Bottled oils and teas become\u003cbr\u003eofferings. Hair tools and jewelry become relics. The bodega and the church converge. Through this\u003cbr\u003egesture, the work asserts that ritual does not belong to institutions alone—it lives in the gestures we\u003cbr\u003einherit, the objects we keep, and the spaces we create for ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44086806577195,"sku":null,"price":2000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0680\/1817\/6043\/files\/after_my_first_communion_we_went_to_the_bodega_1.jpg?v=1779210649","url":"https:\/\/scout.artscape.org\/products\/after-my-first-communion-we-went-to-the-bodega-installation","provider":"SCOUT Art Fair","version":"1.0","type":"link"}