Rochele Gomez: It's Just Not the Same Without You.
April 5 - May 10, 2025
Opening reception: April 5, 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Los Angeles Feelings (90026), 2024, backlight photograph in light box, 15 x 22 x 2 ½ inches
We are pleased to announce "Rochele Gomez: It's Just Not the Same Without You," an exhibition of recent artworks by this young Los Angeles artist. "It's Just Not the Same Without You" is presented in conjunction with "Erica Vincenzi: Now and Again and Yesterday Once More." Both shows open on Saturday, April 5 with an artists' reception from 2:00 - 5:00 pm at as-is
"Rear lit" may be an apt metaphor for the five artworks by Rochele Gomez now on view as it describes both their particular manner of presentation as well as the wistful, retrospective attitude adopted by the artist as she addresses aspects of her own past. Each artwork consists of a single medium-sized color photographic transparency mounted in a white metal box and lit from the rear. And each photo depicts a different home the artist and her family occupied as they moved in and around Los Angeles from the years of her childhood and adolescence, to the present as an adult.
Animating what might otherwise be a dry, documentary account is the introduction of an oversized placard featuring the cartoon character Garfield, who functions as an unlikely "tour guide" adding pathos and providing the needed formal continuity from house to house and image to image.
"Real estate is the soul of Los Angeles," complained more than one jaundiced visitor to this city over the years. Gomez says much the same thing here, but with far greater understanding and affection.
It’s Just Not the Same Without You.
The photographs that make up my Los Angeles Feelings project map the aesthetic history of my Mexican American family who has lived in LA since the early 20th century, and looks to the cartoon character Garfield as a marker of familiarity and sentimentality. The use of the lightbox emphasizes the quality of light that prevails in each site drenched in the Southern California sun. The sun as a light source is an equalizing part of living in Los Angeles—it shines bright no matter where you live or how much money you have. The sun cannot be avoided and it cannot be owned.
Each photograph requires an intimate performance: I bring a giant card from my house to my car parked on the street, then I drive to the house and park nearby. I put the card as close as I can to the site and start arranging my shot. In this process I perform through the object revealing the present day relationship I have to the home—the physically closer I can get, the stronger relationship I have with the current tenants. I’m anxious in doing these quiet actions, worried of getting caught, even if I have lived in the house longer than the current owner. This mental wrestling over ownership, of memory, and my experience of moving place to place situates the relationship of my family to the geopolitical history of Los Angeles .
The use of text in the greeting cards further emphasizes my emotional attachment to the homes, while Garfield’s presence makes him a tour guide and an entry point into the photographs in being a well-beloved cat. Through these ephemeral gestures, Los Angeles Feelings becomes an expression of memory and emotion in a city that constantly changes, and makes it possible to trace a sign of my family’s existence in the images left behind.
-Rochele Gomez