Leah Capaldi
Installation shot from Big Slit, 2021. Leah Capaldi and Matt's Gallery
Interview Excerpt Transcript
Leah Capaldi (b. 1985, Chertsey, UK) lives and works in London. MA Sculpture, Royal College of Art (2010). Represented by Matt’s Gallery, London
The crossover area between the disciplines of sculpture and performance are of particular interest to Leah Capaldi’s practice, with echoes of the seminal performance work of the late 1960s and early 70s. She explores the pivotal relationship between object or subject, encouraging the audience to question themselves in relation to the work and playing with notions of surveillance and spectatorship.
“It’s such a ‘safe’ space, the gallery space. Within a gallery, we can see the most horrendous images or we can be part of anything, and it’s diluted because of the confines of the art cathedral. If I can get people to experience the rupture or interruption of their viewing, I can shake them out of that. If they’re going around in a bit of a daydream, I wonder if there’s something I can do to prod them and draw them back, to realise that there’s something else happening that they weren’t aware of. There’s also a very accepted way of viewing work; why should there be?” Leah Capaldi in Interview with Ellen Mara de Wachter.