Leo Costelloe turns the kitchen into a site of fantasy and unease

There is something slightly subversive in the domestic. Behind the lace curtains, or the locked front door, there are private rituals and intimate habits we aren’t privy to. In the kitchen, we teeter between domestic goddess and boring functionality. Artist Leo Costelloe agrees. ‘I’m naturally drawn to themes that tread the line between aspirational fantasy and desperate reality, in the hopes of working something out for myself, or maybe for other people too,’ he says.

During Frieze in London, Irish-Australian artist Costelloe is bringing the kitchen, the essence of the home, to life in an exhibition at The Shop at Sadie Coles. With sculptural and photographic work, and in a collaboration with perfumer Fahad Mayet, Costelloe creates an immersive, uncanny environment.

‘It is a meditation on the cyclical nature of that space, and of homelife and homemaking in general,’ he adds. ‘I liked the idea of focusing on the kinds of rhythms of the home that orchestrate everyday life, and recognising the home as a place of self-actualisation. The kitchen, with all its cultural pretence, felt like the best place to start. It encapsulates the tension between the burden and the beauty of caring for others and oneself in the most basic, daily, repetitive way, so that’s why it became my starting point for this show.’

In Costelloe’s kitchen, we recognise familiar items, but look again, and something is a little – off. There is a fork, but it is woven with human hair, a jug coated in fur, a pair of diamond-studded scissors. Homemaking here is overrun with fantasy, and it’s very impractical.

It also smells good. Costelloe worked with Mayet to create a perfume vessel sculpture, emitting the scent of a lived-in kitchen, which is also available to buy. Scents of stove, compact powder, a polyester blouse – the kitchen may be empty of its inhabitants, but their presence is still palpable.

‘It’s my most autobiographical body of work to date, and the first time I’ve worked in the realm of scent,’ says Costelloe. ‘When I first started developing the show, I felt nervous about how different everything felt compared to my previous work. Everything is very confusing and can feel alien until you see it together, or at least that’s how it feels to me. But seeing it all installed was emotional. I recognised myself in it, and that means it’s all the same. I’m looking forward to the work hopefully staying with people. I think there’s a type of nostalgia or ghostliness to this show that might stick with you. Perhaps I’m most looking forward to everyone discovering they’re haunted too.’

Leo Costelloe: Kitchen until 1 November 2025 at The Shop at Sadie Coles HQ, London. The perfume will be available in a custom boxed edition of 20, produced in collaboration with Dean’s Bottom and Book Works

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