The Blossoming of Aspartame

Gabrielle Constantine

August 8 - September 14, 2025
907 Christian Street, Philadelphia PA 19147

Opening Reception: Friday, August 8, 2025 from 7-10PM

Blah Blah Gallery is pleased to present The Blossoming of Aspartame, a solo exhibition by Gabrielle Constantine, opening Friday, August 8 from 7-10PM. This exhibition marks the culmination of Constantine’s month-long residency at the gallery, where she developed and fabricated the works on-site.

Constantine creates sculptural installations that embrace excess, collapse, and theatrical failure. Drawing from the visual language of working-class businesses and domestic interiors, she blends ornament, improvisation, and humor to explore the awkward space between aspiration and authenticity.

The Blossoming of Aspartame features a new body of sculptures, including light-based works made from reconfigured domestic lamps. Boxes sourced from neighboring vendors in the Italian Market act as pedestals, referencing both the rhythms of local labor and the afterlife of everyday materials. Scattered rubber bands serve as both material and metaphor—overlooked tools that echo repetitive handwork, like the florist’s or fruit monger’s version of a stitch on a quilt. For Constantine, this gesture is personal, recalling her father’s early morning trips to the Italian Market for restaurant supplies. Underfoot, the rubber bands evoke the way such labor is often stepped over, even as it holds everything together.

Her process mirrors quilting: collecting discarded scraps and stitching them into eccentric versions of the original. Seams remain visible, like scars, tracing histories of repair and reinvention. Constantine’s sculptures ask what happens when the performance of taste fails—when the knockoff reveals itself, when a disguise falls apart, and when ornament becomes declaration. With sincerity and satire held in balance, The Blossoming of Aspartame celebrates the beautifully unbeautiful and the lives of materials long after their prime.