Trifle (2013)

Collage and Performance.

Trifle I and II were created after two months of residence at SIM in Reykjavík, Iceland. Through this project, the phenomenon of over consumption is explored. With appropriating and diverting strong symbolic images of the consumer society, contrasted with images of indigenous people, the collage criticizes the excesses of the latter: overproduction, junk, waste, North / South inequalities, body-worship and beauty. Collage allows the creation of a new world with elements of the existing world, returning the anomalies, while avoiding the lure of the aesthetic instrumentation of reality.

To illustrate the animal instinct in this project, a performance installation, titled Trifle II (2013), was exhibited at Kunstschlager in Reykjavík. This work is composed of a woman mounted against the wall. She wears a garment of fur and intestinal linings to reference our tribal ancestors. A pod sits atop of her head, like a tumorous growth that plagues our society. This sculptural installation is worn by the woman as she sits for hours in front the audience.

A second performance installation in NYC, titled Trifle III (2014), further deepens the discussion of overconsumption by focusing solely upon the consumption of the image in our current day. Once again, a woman sits for hours, embedded into a sculptural object. This time the sculpture kinetically envelops the woman through inhales and exhales as she numbingly takes in the flickering images on the small television placed on the floor in front of her. This work addresses the visible and invisible systems of communication that society is dominated by, which is the daily entertainment of mass media and consumerism through new technologies.