Upcoming 2012:
JANUARY
Arielle White and Ece Budak
BLAST OFF
JAN 19th - 29th.
RECEPTON: Friday JAN 20th at 7pm
Arielle White
Ece Budak
Artist Statement
Ece Budak and Arielle White
The inhabitants of the Hungry Ghost Realm are depicted as creatures with scrawny
necks, small mouths, emaciated limbs and large, bloated, empty bellies. This is the
domain of addiction, where we constantly seek something outside ourselves to curb
an insatiable yearning for relief or fulfillment.
Gabor Mate
‘BLAST-OFF!’ is a collaborative project that started with a question. As we struggle to find a way to harmonize the ruthless, mechanical reality of the social order with our much more innovative and elastic interior space, the contrast between our rigid surroundings and inner dialogue is startling to say the least. There must be some kind of deathly contradiction between what we want and what we can actually have. In this shifting consumer society, we’re told that we can succeed if we submit heart and soul to the safe hands of Mr. Incorporated. Why then is it that so many people lose their way?
Our installation aims to establish an unashamed dialogue with youth culture, drug abuse and psychological illness. It takes the form of a narrative about two young women, women who would be labeled drug-addicts, psychologically and emotionally unstable, and at times deviant by societal standards. The young women, tragicomically dubbed ‘Shithead’ and ‘Sparky’, are by no means unique; we intend to portray ordinary, rather than as a rarity. ‘BLAST-OFF!’ wants to depart from the cultural ‘norm’, and instead shed light on the ‘fringe’ or ‘other’. We mean to engender a stance of resistance against Western practices of alienation, scapegoating and societal segregation. The two protagonists seek refuge within one another, as well as within their habits and pathologies. This becomes an ever-growing struggle against the real world, a world where indeed mass overstimulation is a form of psychosis in itself.
The exhibition itself acts as a gateway. We enter these women’s lives, their most personal moments, through the veil of mementos and snapshots. They’ve been through the system; they have entered its facilities, wards, and hospitals, and have been diagnosed, counseled, treated and at times rejected. However this story is not meant to be a single account. It is meant to serve as the anchor for a larger dialogue about high-risk youth behavior and alternative lifestyles. We must learn to accept the depravity we as a society create, as well as the various cycles of abuse and coping that arise as a symptom of this evil. The project aims to reconnect mass society with its shadow, with individuals who have been pushed behind the curtain.
‘BLAST-OFF!’ seeks not only to recreate highly intimate and disturbing moments in a graphic and illustrative style, but also the entire perceptual and conceptual ‘world’ of Sparky and Shithead. The bulk of the work consists of monochromatic ink drawings and cutouts that reconstruct the intimate moments of these women’s lives, contrasted with highly colourful ink drawings that represent the land of their fantasies. The lines between reality and fantasy blur, as do the lines between linear narrative and allegory. There is a desire to highlight the sensory surplus in both their lives, their behavior, and in turn the collective ‘madness’ of society.
As Sparky says: ‘No babe, we are not mad. The World is Lying.’
In the sequel works titled BLAST-OFF: The Landing we see an expansion of the themes and narratives of the first series. Now, the initial bemusement and chaotic revelry have worn thinner and the grinding cogs of the system are more palpable. The works are a combination of the previous ink drawings and newer poster genre images. The images are messy, graphic and text based, almost akin to propaganda however without a direct persuasive intent. What is the landing? It’s an attempted re-integration, albeit tainted by cynicism- an attempt to poke fun at a system that sadly cannot be overcome. Again, the state of being a hungry ghost, now on a more societal level- how we fall victim to our desires, to the images or icons we want to perpetuate, filled with a hollow glamour that only consumer society can imbue.