"Angels" Porcelain angels, marble mortar & pestle, 5 x 7 x 4.5 inches, 2009

One angel conveniently turns her back towards her crushed sister, demurely playing the expected role to the same forces that could destroy her too.

"Save Me" Endless loop video, 2009

Video of a woman repeatedly baptizing herself in the River Jordan. Her halo appears when she emerges from the water and fades as she rises, so she must take another dip. Shot at The Jordan River in Israel, the river in which Jesus was baptized.

Part Sisyphus, part Pollyanna, she willingly, self-righteously and deliriously believes that she can be pure of body and mind, regardless of the fact that this is humanly impossible, and more importantly, impractical. This dream becomes her prison in that she cannot allow herself to enjoy the pleasures and realities of life, including the natural process of making mistakes, growing wiser as a result and laughing at them fondly in hindsight. Who/what does she really need to be saved from?

See a video clip at www.kanderson.tv/SaveMe.html

LAN Party or “National Take Your Daughter to Work Day

In LAN Party or “National Take Your Daughter to Work Day” Noelle Mason grafts autobiographical narrative onto appropriated images, objects, and contexts in an attempt to negotiate the complexities of power, which reverberate between the interpersonal and institutional.  The resulting installation, or local area network (LAN,) implicates the viewer in an act of violence and uses the gallery as a medium to examine the historical precedence that affirms the authority of viewership.  In LAN Party a Remington M700 police sniper rifle is poised atop a domestic looking table.  A stool and headphone set invite the viewer to position herself behind the rifle, aimed at a small ornately framed monitor across the room.  The monitor which, can only be seen and heard when standing in close proximity, shows found footage taken through the lens of an American helicopter sniper as he targets and kills Iraqis on the ground.  The video is accompanied by a telephone recording of Ms. Mason’s father’s voice coolly describing the formal qualities of his own experience with the Remington M700 (weight, material, kickback.)  Outfitted with headphones and enabled by the magnifying powers of the rifle’s scope, the viewer across the room receives the sniper footage in concert with the original soundtrack—the voices of gunmen and the booming sound of shots being fired.

Performance at KOKAY (which means fireflies in mayan language) at a place called Xpu Ha Jungle

Monstrous Feminine in Mexico is a performance that took place in Mexico in June 2009, at the Coba Mayan jungle ruins and in Kokay (which means “fireflies” in Mayan language) in place called the Xpu Ha Jungle. I created a hand sewn, hand-dyed costume using WWII fabric straps/bandages and gold and silver chains, as a way of blending with the natural environment.

Monstrous Feminine in Mexico

Part of the performance was directly inspired by the paintings of Henri Rousseau–”The Snake Charmer” and “The Dream.” At the time that I traveled Mexico, I was reading “The Hopi Survival Kit,” which, it turned out, specifically addresses Nostradamus’s prophecies, the end of the Mayan calendar, and Mother Nature’s impending cataclysmic reclamation of herself. Coincidentally, the man who offered the use of his jungle land for my performance was also named Nostradamus.

Monstrous Feminine in Mexico

Monstrous Feminine in Mexico

To see more of my work on the Losing yourself site, click here.

WOMAN - MAN

WOMAN – MAN  – The images in this series affirm the time – sequence of relationship cycles, creating awareness of the multi-faceted roles of women.

lisadeloriaweinblatt.com

BLU, 2009

BLU, 2009
Video: 1:10min
Words of desire spin in a demanding hypnotic loop.
http://www.zoechan.com/sculpture/video

“Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire. The emotion derives from a double contact: on the one had, a whole activity of discourse discreetly, indirectly focuses upon a single signified, which is ‘I desire you,’ and releases, nourishes, ramifies it to the point of explosion … on the other hand, I enwrap the other in my words, I caress, brush against, talk up this contact, I extend myself to make the commentary to which I submit the relation endure.” – Barthes, A Lovers Discourse

Let my words work upon you. My words are my body. My words can touch you. Let me touch you with my words. Let my language work into you. Let my fingers touch across your edges. Let them turn you over. Let them turn you around. Smoothly. Gently. I push. I pull. I have your words at my fingertips. I twist you at the edges of my hands. My fingers move back and forth. Back and forth. Up and down. Down and up. Let my body twist you. Smooth and stop. Stop and up. Faster, stop. Back up. Now down. Now down, now down. I work upon you. My fingers are my hands, my hands are my body, my body embraces you. It holds you. It holds you taught. In line. In control. Controlled. And I work upon you. Twisting and turning. Faster and faster. Faster and faster. Back and forth. Forth and back. Again. Faster and faster. Back and forth. Up and down. Down and up. Front and back. Back and front. Faster and stop. Stop and slowly. Slowly I release you. Let me let you go. I can touch you. I let go. Let my fingers touch your edge. Let them hold you. I will hold you. I will hold you softly. Quietly. I will turn you around and let you go softly. Let me touch you with my words. My words can touch you. My words are my body. Let my words work upon you.

Let my words work upon you. Let them touch the tip of your mind. Let them work into your body. I extend myself into your body. My fingers control my words that work their way into your body. Let them move within you.

Zoe Chan :: www.zoechanworks.com :: info@zoechanworks.com

You are cordially invited to tea time (Courtesy of The Suz), 2008

The merging of all three “Suz”, Sue, Su, and Sioux (representative of three alter-egos symptomatic of the polarizing impacts of race and identity politics) into a single entity is an attempt to re-define the self, using tactics familiar to how commercial and corporate industries re- brand themselves or form a new authentic identity. The Suz, in the guise of a faux real company and brand, fabricates familiar spaces or constructs to address the notions of authenticity, identity, and perceptions. You are cordially invited to tea time was the faux real collective’s first attempt to create the time for a participatory space and experience for the artist and viewer to interact and partake in an activity that lends itself to a critical dialogue of their immediate surroundings. The installation included an octagonal platform with custom made floor cushions, tea menus, and a tea set on a serving tray (all branded with The Suz logo) that was designed and constructed specifically to host a party of four for tea in the gallery. Throughout the course of the evening everyone was invited to tea time, as a hired employee (me disguised in a blonde wig) served tea to those who willingly decided to sit on top and participate.

**You can see a short video of the installation/performance captured live by wetheat project on the evening of the opening at this link: http://wetheat.tv/WHtvChannel2.html (go to the menu to the left and scroll down to Lee-Chun)**

Detail of ‘Childhood ‘memory station’ in Secret Museum of Mankind Installation

This piece was part of the installation Secret Museum Of Mankind where I created my own Natural History Museum, which included different ‘memory stations’: that represented my genetic past, childhood and future.

(Below) This mural is based off a original photograph obtained by my father during his service in the Bolivian Army in 1967. The characters in the piece are Che Guevara and his gang in the Bolivian jungles during their attempt to revolutionilize Bolivia. I used my father’s clothing and towels as materials.

Donna Huanca, Cuban Rebels, 1967 (Last Supper) 2007, 9’ x 12' Father’s Clothing on Canvas, Faux Cocaine

The Future Diorama was composed of all of the galleries pedestals and natural elements such as plants, dirt, bones, toilet paper.

Untitled (Fall)

Performance Still

Performance Still

Performance Still

Performance Still

Performance Still

Once Upon is an installation that contemporizes fairy tales and myths. Its purpose is to ask the question, do we still believe in the mythical ideal woman? Is she a damsel in distress? A mythical creature? A witch? Is her purpose pleasing her husband and bearing children?  The sculptures of women I created represent individual heroines in fairy tales. Each women is created with ceramic, wood, bronze or iron parts and wears an embroidered dress. In the installation these sculptures are placed in groups where they create an interaction between one another. To enhance the interaction between these women I installed sound that contained commands from every fairy tale I referenced. Each command I created derives a single message from each Fairy tale referenced in the installation.

Save me.- Rumpelstilskin

Be Afraid of me.- Little Miss Muffet

Satisfy me.- Daphne

Give me your hair.- Rapunsel

Eat this.- Snow White

Make her love me.- Atlanta

Consume me.- Hansel and Grettel

Cut this.- The Fates

Leave me.- The Three Bears

Love me.- Athena

Protect me.- Jourinda and Jourinde

Fear me.- Little Red Riding Hood

Look at me.- The Graece

Obey me.- Cinderella

Below is a link to the sound piece.

http://www.soundsnap.com/audio/pending/280367

Initiation, 2008. Watercolor and graphite on paper. Fabric, rawhide, golden thread, my cat's fur, threaded beads, ornate gold detail, black feathers. 3' x 2'.

There are two elements to Initiation - the drawing/painting and the handmade object. In both I weave together parts of myself with parts of an animal. The idea of seams is important in my work. My intent is to create an image for the viewer to wonder over. For example, is this a headdress or an attack? Through formal properties and juxtapositions I deny resolution. By doing so the fantasy comes apart at the seams, unraveled just enough to reveal that the meaning is in the combination.

These seams are made visual through disjointed overlaps of realities, transparencies, and refractions. Automobiles may pass behind a fantastical performance, while mass-produced, kitsch ornamentation is used to pay tribute to drawings of ancient figures. Odd combinations, such as drawings of realistic anatomy combined with handcrafted decorations, echo the hybridity of the beings depicted in my images. This work is not about creating a separate fantasy world but longing and wonderment for other possibilities.

Throughout my work I repeatedly use the image of the centaur, the feral, and the early hominid. Although the centaur is half human, half animal the two parts remain separate inside one being. The feral is also a combination of animal and human, of wild and domesticated. But without resolving into one or the other, the feral exists as something new. As is my work, it is a combined state of neither and both.

Through drawings, video and sculpture, I collapses time and space to create a narrative across eras that explores the mutability of biological form. My quasi-pre-historical, romanticized narratives create a dramatic record of desire and aggression that questions the boundaries of gender, species, and self-identification.

Themes of hybridization and connection run throughout my work, both visually and conceptually. Creating complex amalgams of animal and human, fantastic and realistic, handmade and mass-produced; my narratives entwine mystical experience, natural sciences and daily life. I use fantasy as a strategy to locate the narrative in a borderless, undefined space.

I repeatedly use the image of the centaur, the feral, and the early hominid. These slightly altered states of human being intrigue me as they offer options for existence; a mode of being more connected to our animal selves. This drawing “Barrier Island” is a self portrait created upon return from my solitary stay on Assategue Island. Assateague is a barrier island off the coast of Maryland renowned for free-roaming feral horses. Camping there with no human contact, I became absorbed into the ebbing and flowing of sea water and wildlife. By falling in tune with the daily rhythms of the place and, by extension, the natural world I was no longer a separate being but part of the island.