WHITE NIGHTS- SUNSET PALMS, 2002 Duratrans, lightbox Ed1/3 $4,500

RESTLESS MASS, 1999 (installation view LA Municipal Art Gallery) lingeree, pajamas, nightgowns, sheets and blankets

RESTLESS MASS, 1999 (detail)

In "Restless Mass," Charles LaBelle winds and suspends hundreds of pounds of thrift store pajamas, nightgowns, and bedding into a ball of condensed sleeplessness. Pajamas, the most intimate clothing, next to one's undergarments, are usually worn during a state of repose. In "Restless Mass," the unknown histories and washed desires of different textures and designs are held in uneasy tension despite their detached coolness in shape and form. It oscillates between suspended placidity and impending implosion. At the same time, "Restless Mass" embodies the longing for intimate connections and utopian experiences of art and life, inextricably intertwined. Excerpt from Object Lessons, Catalogue Essay by Susette Min for The Mourning After: Art of Loss

ILLUMINATED TREES #2, 2000 C-Prints

ILLUMINATED TREES #5, 2000 C-Prints

DIE!, 2002-2502 (installation view Bodybuilder & Sportsman Gallery) Lead-lined steel box w/ polyurathane enamel “metal-flake” finish & ceremonial plaque 27 x 24 x 24 inches Box sealed on November 1, 2002. To be opened on November 1, 2502.

Interrogation, 2002 Single channel video 40 minute loop Artist Statement for Interrogation: I’m not much for collecting stuff, I try to throw as much out as possible. I hate baggage. Nevertheless stuff accumulates. And all of it has a history. Every little thing means something. I look around my house and all this shit stares at me, starts to talk to me. It can be quite deafening. I recall Lacan’s story of the sardine can floating on the water, reflecting the sun. How this bit of trash spoke to him, winked at him. I was also thinking of Freud’s concept of the uncanny. How things become uncanny when they’ve disappeared for awhile and then come back. Or, more accurately, they don’t disappear but rather recede Into the shadows, the shadows of the attic or the shadows of your unconscious. And when they slowly come back into the light they’re suddenly unfamiliar, suddenly strange. This video interrogates this process and at the same time literally interrogates the individual objects, trying to get them to spill their guts, reveal their secrets.