2011, 2014
Using the pop music album as soundtrack and duration, BLACKOUT presents ideas of hypnosis, immaterial commodification, fan culture, and subliminal messages.
The gold-glittered runway has been tied into a figure-eight; an endless feedback loop to trap, contain, program. A horizontal Sisyphus. The performer struts continuously, activating the machine that has no material outcome, rather a self-contained spectacle; a metaphor for the pop star who, although organic, is looked to as a culture producing machine.
As a teenager I obsessively listened to pop music albums as an escape from the heternormative conservatism around me. This temporality, usually around 1 hour long, became a private, temporary utopia.
Each iteration of this performance features a different pop music album, re-recorded and played backwards, as its soundtrack.
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live performance to the length of Britney Spears' BLACKOUT album re-recorded backward
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5d4fd4d58a1715bcd3306c79b80ae592e54511f2acb1c779422cbccf5e6e223d/IMG_7951---Version-2_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/39f5c1927d89d47478b8c73341b5f90a2ec983bbf2ca0055b467740fbe4475af/IMG_7989---Version-2_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/01dd0abf742a6f781cc4838fdbccea760564267a38542e9bc335b65354457ca9/IMG_8030---Version-2_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/df57888871db757f72cd875e0476906e9fb929dfdfef0d93498d781e2d11898b/IMG_8111---Version-2_o.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f1a83ddde1fe79a5ad90b602148a3734767308ed6ac8a4ab48e076080d6088f3/BLACKOUT_o.jpg)
custom leggings by KATIE GALLAGHER
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BLACKOUT [ƎƆИOYƎᙠ]
2014
Chapel Gallery, University of Southern California
live performance to the length of Beyoncé’s BEYONCÉ album re-recorded backward
text by Lex Brown
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e6dfa08b682261e5a10d14f1d493df3c8e7e8de397ed0bc127a497cbf2fc298a/BLACKOUT_Beyonce_TMO.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f0790932040cc64f2cc1970a740b96564b4193880e36fc5a83b3571e81320de8/Screen-shot-2014-11-06-at-11.17.18-PM.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3f156bdd636cd5b208e8705ed84f3e4066983dff6890ea15b7115f70ef96fc96/Screen-shot-2014-11-06-at-11.14.59-PM.png)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c0c81e8ea6f60ebecac687b664c62ed145fb3caba591ebfb245bd9967ed854d1/Screen-shot-2014-11-06-at-11.15.35-PM.png)