I’m Blue
Selected works
by Carly Mandel
July 20–August 1, 2020

HOLDING Contemporary presents a special edition of works available by Carly Mandel. Three oversized medical ID bracelets engraved with symbols and adorned with chunky bracelet chains are featured in I’m Blue, on display virtually from July 20–August 1, 2020. Works can be seen on the gallery’s website and on Instagram. An hour-long conversation with the artist will occur on Thursday, July 30, at 5pm PT/8pm ET on Zoom. The Zoom participation code is 855 192 711, with the password 060467.

Carly Mandel’s practice considers how objects and people are medicalized within late capitalism. Mandel’s sculptures featured in I’m Blue reclaim traumas induced by privatized healthcare and the consumer wellness industry. Symbols on the bodies of the three large medical ID bracelets feature an olive branch dove representing hope, a rain cloud representing despair, and a biohazard symbol representing danger. Medical ID bracelets are emblematic of medical necessity, precaution, and planning around inevitable emergency circumstances where the wearer may be unable to communicate, complicating circumstances surrounding their medical health. Her sculptures focus on the ways survival is represented through commodities; by re-representing these objects, she illustrates how we are all unable to thrive independent of their consumption. 

Similarly to socially reinforced ideologies of labor and productivity, wellness products operate from the mythology that earning more (and consuming more) will be the key to unlocking one’s true potential. At the same time, this ethos disguises or shames those who are monetarily or physically unable to participate in a consumer-driven “wellness culture”,  that tells us that our well-being and life itself has a high, if not unattainable, price. 

Carly Mandel (b. St. Louis, MO) is an artist working in Brooklyn, NY. In 2015, she received her BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. Her sculptures and videos have been shown nationally and internationally, upcoming exhibitions include a solo show with Agnes Vargis in Brooklyn, NY. Mandel was a 2017 recipient of the Emerging Artist Grant from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and a 2019 recipient of a Visiting Artist Fellowship from UrbanGlass. An interview between Mandel and Kerry Doran was published in BOMB in 2018. More information about her previous exhibitions, panels, press, and awards can be found on her website: carlymandel.com. 

HOLDING Contemporary presents exhibitions and programs by visual artists across disciplines. Through our curatorial vision and alternative community-driven business model we seek to challenge the economic and social privilege of the art world.