Elysia Borowy-Reeder - Jeffrey Tranchell: Moonlighting

December 10 - 22, 2023

Jeffrey Tranchell: Moonlighting

4474 16th Street, Unit 1
Detroit, MI

The Caterpillar Gallery announces a solo exhibition of Jeffrey Tranchell entitled Moonlighting. Opening on Friday, November 10 at 5 PM. All are welcome to attend.
Moonlighting will be the most comprehensive exhibition to date by the artist. (b. 1982, Owosso, Michigan). The artist will present four custom stained glass windows and a number of light sculptures. Tranchell lives and works in Detroit, Michigan.

Tranchell's work resonates with influences from artists who have left an indelible mark on art history, Gaudi’s organic and surreal architectural creations, Simon Rodia's visionary Watts Towers, and the vibrant quilts from Gee's Bend collectively provide a tapestry of inspiration. Tranchell has meticulously crafted a body of work that transcends conventional artistic boundaries, demonstrating his versatility and profound artistic practice.

Tranchell created four custom stained glass windows for the innovative capitellar gallery windows which feature 12 to 18-foot windows and 23-foot ceilings. The handmade line of light contrasts with the aluminum cladding and reinforces the project's inspiration from a UFO crash landing in a forest and into the Pompidou Museum in Paris (a foreign object anchoring a public space).

With an expansive practice that involves social impact work, land art, Relational Aesthetics, and craft, Tranchell's interests vary aesthetically. He is especially interested in the priorities artwork is made under and its anticipated place in the world. Quasi-functional sculptures adorn light bulbs with the hopes that they could pass in a thrift store as well as a gallery. Their lamp hood is both about improving the chances of survival in the world and having some plausible deniability about being an artwork. Similar games are played with the glass wall sculptures masquerading as decorative light switches and outlet covers.

Tranchell explored this quotidian tradition of adorning light switch covers with artistic efforts in a recent project at NADA House in 2021. His Turn Onz collaboration afforded artists with a site for expression which might circumvent some of the usual trappings of exhibiting artwork. Sharing a Keatsian notion of negative capability, collaborators could offer wares which would embrace or eschew the classification of their work as fine art as it suited their purposes. Whether they opted to bridge gaps or traverse between different artistic realms was a matter of personal discretion.

Tranchell states, “What feels liberating to me in stained glass, is the materials status as a commercial trade. Something about producing under the circumstances of a craft, even more so under the terms of something like repairing a broken window, where I can be a little in denial over having aesthetic motivations really greases the wheels for me. I guess I’m still trying to resolve if this is some midwestern guilty conscious about not having a real job or just trying to appeal to as many markets as possible.”