Entropic Transpersonifications Sampler
2016
Installation, Photography, Drawings
Exhibited as part of the first Industrial Art Biennial, Utopia = Reality, which opened in Labin, Croatia on March 2, 2016
Curated by Lucrezia de Domizio Durini
Artist statement:
“Entropic Transpersonifications Sampler is a non-linear compilation of images, drawings, and objects arranged to elude a slowly shifting cosmos. The title implies multiple concentric stages of reality performed by the artist as an act of embodiment and memory. Visible in each of the images, the artist performs gestures as private performances in site-specific locations inspired by memories of her maternal lineage, and multiple interpretations of gender. Recognizable landmarks juxtaposed with the artist dressed in period clothing evoke a symbiotic relationship, media driven with an open interpretive narrative interwoven with the artists’ personal story. In turn, these works spawn individualized personas as a kind of creation myth of characters that function as a parallel reality within a singular self. The artist identifies this as a “Nested Self” within the realm of an internalized theater.”
Additional information:
“Entropic” is a perpetual circular space that can be seen as a vehicle for non-linear time travel. “Trans-personifications” defines the performers experience of becoming a persona through the combining of clothing, gesture, action, with props and within the setting. “Sampler” suggests the variety of things that are displayed to present the construction of the multiple self to the viewer.
A compilation of images and objects are hung in a kind of scattered salon style as though they are slowly shifting around the red circular icon with arrows throughout. This diagram interprets an energy exchange between the self and the outer world. If applied as an exchange between cultures and micro-cultures it can be interpreted as though the self is a solid core, made of facets that exchange and evolve; a simple interpretation of what we may experience with one another every day. This motion is what somewhat illustrates the construct of the “Theater of Self”.
Formed within this structure is “The Nested Selves”, comprised of a matrilineal lineage of three generations and a contemporary horizontal splicing of personas. The larger images that surround the diagram are portraits of the artist in persona during site-specific performances in public and private spaces. “Efrosini” is the darkly dressed woman who appears on top of a rooftop with the looming backdrop of the Agia Sofia with turrets spearing the sky, from Istanbul in Turkey. Efrosini is also seen sitting on a bench looking directly at the camera while holding in her hand a white knarly form of loops and knots as though she were providing a clue or or an untold story. In the background are circles in iron and in window to suggest that she is beside another church in Athens. Some of the images depict a dance and struggle with string and rope. The persona that the artist is performing is “Magda”, a physical interpretation of the struggle and break she experienced after being bound by the weight of traditional cultural roles. Images from this performance are scattered throughout the wall as though the scattering of the sequence resonates with the other persona narratives. Magda can also be seen in other images, like a smaller one at the Acropolis in Athens, pulling a mesh of strings out of her purse. Magda’s daughters are “Proper One” and “Activista”, who have rather different lives. Proper One lives in comfort as a painter and one who enjoys life. Activista takes risks in publicly conveying and fighing against injustices as seen in her clothing with vivid statements. “Tarantella” is the only unrelated persona who is hired to manage the cultural public presence this crew of characters. She is the one who educates viewers on the passage to the Theater of Self and The Nested Self in studio events. The additional arrays of small images are of various places and activities captured in the artists’ life; domestic and industrial activities; celebrations and protests with signage declaring human rights; and remote landscapes and sites of various regions with implied cultural paradigms. The codes of gender are interlaced within the combination of objects and content within the images of each persona.
The objects as well as some of the images include sites dominated by concentric forms believed to possess a hidden message or passage that transcends time and space. Articles of clothing on the wall replicate items adorned by the artist in the images and convey the characteristics of a persona she embodies in these short performances for the camera. Knitted forms identified as “entanglements” are objects that pertain to meditation with the hands (much like paw pressing for cats) as a form of quantum transcendence. One entanglement is adorned with a scarf. The small constructed box is from of a series of “websites”; supported with string combined with a line drawing and an assembled pile of paper as a small abstraction. Another small scroll is sealed up, concealing a secret. The black calligraphic drawing in its expressive gesture compliments the implied directions from other neighboring works. The floor rubbing is an entryway to the entire piece, and an emblem for the persona employed at the business location that the floor rubbing was taken from. A t-shirt blaringly sends the message to commence an abusive behavior that extends all societies to “End Racism”.
