Futile Experiments in Mimesis ︎︎︎

2018
Single channel video with audio, 18min. drywall, wood, concrete, raw canvas, paper, c-prints

The performative action in the work addresses classical (mimetic) system of representation. It engages ritualized and mundane gestures (clasped arms, rocking motion) as repetition that is at once a reenactment and re-experiencing of a set of meanings already socially established. The action is an attempt to challenge the patriarchal representation, rooted in the writings of Aristotle and throughout Western philosophy, of a Mother and a Woman figure as a fixed subject.

The exhibition posits a claim for a political and representational visibility in contemporary culture through examination of text, embodiment and a notion of feminist mimesis to release the transgressive corporeality of the female, and maternal, performer.

Presented at Stevenson Blanche, California Institute of the Arts.

Sound design: Alan S. Tofighi
Installation images: Daniel Alcazar