PARASITIC PLASTICITY

A Collaborative Artist Residency with Jum Jirapan, Margaret Kim, and Miriam Tobias

Parasitic Plasticity explores the liminal universe of the animate and inanimate: a world of confounding coexistence of hypocrisies we experience in our lives. Tapeworms and other invasive forms infiltrate common objects of the home, such as instruments and furniture, imbuing them with the esthetic of decay and parasitic infection.

Three artists, over five months, explore biological and spiritual themes related to parasitism and one’s ability to be plastic. Plasticity- the ability to be easily shaped, and adapted, is the fundamental foundation of the parasites that wrap and glom onto each of the sculptures.

The artists couple the customarily repulsive idea of parasitism, with glitter and naive pink shades, opening a conversation about the state of pronoia (opposite of paranoia) which must exist in the mind the parasite. As each of the three artists build and bend on each other’s voice, a dialectic debate between benevolence and parasitism is illustrated through each of the sculptures.