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.
-
live performance to the length of Britney Spears' BLACKOUT album re-recorded backward
custom leggings by KATIE GALLAGHER
-
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
