I’ve been enamored with my daughter Theodora’s art since she first picked up a crayon. She’s shown her work in a variety of mediums and locations, while growing up, and then in college. Seeing Theodora’s multi-year project, Take Alter in a group exhibition at Bibeau Krueger was a proud moment indeed.

I went to the gallery and truly would have fallen for her installation, not just as her mother, but as Woman Seeking Art. Take Alter is playful, impactful, and beautiful.

“Mascot is pleased to contribute the work of Theo Shure in a group exhibition at Bibeau Krueger, organized by Sandra Ono. Works will be presented online and in-person, alongside the work of 7 wonderful artists.

Take Alter is a personal archive of images, taken over a period of six years in the lobby of Shure’s apartment building in Brighton Beach, NYC. An architectural altar turned free pile, the enclave has become an informal drop zone for neighbors to part with unwanted items and pick up others’ past possessions. She’s left things and she’s taken things, but primarily documents with quick portraits as she passes by to leave or return home, continually accumulating her collection. 

The altar is sometimes empty or a dumping ground for litter, but if you’re lucky, it’s a site of communal exchange—a place of potential for someone’s discards to find new purpose with an undetermined neighbor. These still lifes capture the momentary state of flux between being trash and treasure. Shure’s portrait-taking becomes an act of quiet stewardship: an altar-keeper minding the space, with light interventions for added curb appeal. 

Not privy to who gave and who got, each item is a peek into private lives behind closed doors. Neighbors trade relics of abandoned hobbies, excess essentials expiring, the casualties of changing tastes, things grown out of or broken, and mementos from a past that’s ready to be rid of—a rolling, intimate, and anonymous study of those we share space with.

Theo Shure (b. 1993) is a qualitative researcher by trade, and her practice stems from this same durational and ethnographic approach—observing, documenting, talking  with and appreciating. Her work is deeply embedded in her home and community in Brighton Beach Brooklyn, and incorporates video, drawing, found & altered objects, and movement to capture time and place.” (MASCOT)

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Below are some images from MASCOT’s website.