Screening of 'Beautiful Bride in the City', a film by Leo Costelloe, starring Chris Owen, followed by an Artist talk led by Helen Neven.
Preview and screening: 11 am - 7 pm
Artist talk: 7 pm - 9 pm
Kupfer and Leo Costelloe are delighted to present Beautiful Bride in the City, Costelloe’s debut moving image work, starring Chris Owen as “The Bride”.
Beautiful Bride in the City follows the titular subject’s slow progress through London’s urban sprawl, hem soaked brown from soggy pavements, veil dragging along a Jubilee Line train. The incongruous union of subject and surroundings unfolds like a love letter to the city as much as an expression of displacement within it. Costelloe’s accompanying text constellates autobiography and pop cultural references to muse on themes of loss and longing, while the archetypal bride figure adds to the visual lexicon of his sculptural practice which frequently employs motifs of nostalgia, femininity and decoration to confound the line between the beautiful, the banal, and the potentially sinister. On the occasion of its premiere at Kupfer, the film is accompanied by a new sterling silver, silk ribbon and flower sculpture I wish you lived here too, 2023, and an ephemeral floral installation.
Text by Helen Neven
Leo Costelloe (b.1993) is an Australian-born artist living and working in London. His multi-disciplinary practice, including work in glass, metal and silversmithing as well as video and installation, explores the transient and sentimental nature of objects and images, drawing inspiration from popular culture, spiritual practice and personal experience. Costelloe graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA (Hons) in Jewellery Design.
List of works
Leo Costelloe
Beautiful Bride in the City, 2023
Single-channel video, colour, sound
Leo Costelloe
I wish you lived here too, 2023
Sterling silver, silk ribbon and flower
