Behind Closed Doors is an intimate extension of the artist’s exploration into the realm of girlhood, and the narrative of young women at a crossroad, as they move beyond the formative experiences of adolescence towards the emergent realities of womanhood. Themes and imagery central to Rheingold’s practice include symbols of otherness, femininity, and her own heterogeneous cultural background. By representing these elements in unconventional compositions, owing to her employment of automatic drawing/surrealist automatism and her heavy layering of mixed mediums, Rheingold renders these themes and symbols as nostalgic, half-remembered dreams. She is drawn to the idea of mundanity; everyday emotions and banal spaces that, when seen through her surrealist style, are amplified and transformed into subconscious worlds that are both unknowable and universally familiar. By exaggerating the vulnerable and unglamorous details - and often veiled truths - of the feminine experience, Rheingold spotlights a critical period of time, when a young woman becomes conscious of the inherent responsibility she must absorb in order to hold everyone else’s gaze.
Two previous solo exhibitions led up to this body of work and set down the foundation for the current show Behind Closed Doors at Public Service Gallery. Firstly, Lost in The Dress Up Bin at T293 Gallery in Rome, Italy (2023) explored the idea of escapism in a contemporary lens, in relation to the specific childhood game of playing dress up. Examining the desire to put on another look and embody a foreign identity, as well as the expectations and standards that society inherently places on women. Secondly, Best in Show at M+B Gallery in Los Angeles, US (2023) looked at social hierarchies and value systems in relation to the idea that young women are put on a platform and forced to react or perform in everyday life. Throughout these previous investigations, Rheingold was led to expand on these thoughts while creating a soft yet darker, playful narrative.
