/GEAR/ (2016 - )

ENTRY TOOLS I & II  :

ENTRY TOOLS I & II is an installation highlighting the similarities between tactical and sexual fetish aesthetics and asks how much violence is present in sensuality? How much sensuality is present in violence? Can we crave a balance in both? Do we crave a risk of both?

Approaching the piece, the viewer is propositioned with the invitation to investigate a spread of objects strategically distributed between two heavy-duty looking black plastic boxes: a speculum, a can of crisco, a computer charger, a pair of leather-wrapped weights with a clip attached, a small stainless steel arched object, a butterfly knife, a leather harness, bottle of white powder marked j-lube, a small glass bottle of amyl nitrate, two hand held communication systems, a circuit board, and a reusable black plastic douche.

Viewers may become confused about whether or not the objects can be touched or not, but the invitation is an open one. Perhaps a decision not to touch the objects could rely on their overtly dangerous and sexualized nature or perhaps on the perceived history of their usage: small indications of having been tampered with are present; for example, the bottle of amyl nitrate has been opened and the Crisco is no longer sealed. As a result, more questions are raised and remain consistently unanswered: who’s used these items and for what purpose? Are these things dirty? What kind of dirty are they— morally or sanitarily?

ENTRY TOOLS I & II is little more than a box of unanswerable questions, each originating due of the lack of an identifiable performer and the qualities which that performer may or may not carry. As a result of this intentionally obscured information, viewers are encouraged to conjecture about the intended purpose of these objects and the performer (or even artist) ’s consequent relationship to militarization and/or sexuality.

The denial of this important component forces the focus back onto the viewer and the ways in which that particular individual has been initiated to understand what is displayed in relationship to their experiences. Those without preconceived affiliations with the objects become the demographic with the largest potential for imaginative possibilities, those who do recognize the objects are encouraged to construct a narrative between one to the other and are encouraged to submit to any and all feelings of remembrance and/or nostalgia.

GEAR REVIEW(1)__BEGINNERS-VEST.MP4

“...in GEAR-REVIEW(1).MP4, something new happens 

i become apart of a network by initiating comparisons

here the comparisons a very literal : vests 

but i also initiate a new system of looking with a new kind of power structure : 

this fetish looking at another fetish (sex vs war, what could that mean?)

i am woman looking at man (our bodies clearly fit differently within these vests, is there a higherarchy created?) 

i am implying that tools might carry an air of responsibility 
(what would sex tools do in a tactical environment, what would tactical tools do in a sex environment?) 
and i am comparing their aesthetics (which i find brutal, functional, quite vulgar and excessive)

the thing that remains the same, however, is that the act of looking remains masterbatory and we are both looking for the solidity of our bodies through subcultural signifiers : these tools imply i have a function, psychologically and contextually to perform because of my ownership of them. there are other tools in other spaces that provide a similar function. in my work, i aggressively but respectfully look through browser based peepholes over and through to vernacular gestures of other communities in order to better define my own ~ …”

- from “extreme submission” conversations at the edge, gene siskel film center, saic