Spankomatic 1
Spankomatic 1 (2018)
Kinetic sculpture: 120 x 170cms.
Audio: 5m, 24s, looped.
Performance: approx. 15 minutes.
Spankomatic acknowledges the absurdity of serial production and mass consumerist experience with a constant cycle of spanking. As the movement of factories and a progressive abundance of object-hood changes our relationship with bodies and the bodily is alluded to, art production is caught up in the spokes, and questions of punishment and ritual are raised with female-identifying bodies offered in a satirically armed alliance of the abject-grotesque and female empowerment. The question of degradation is met with looks of blank boredom, an acceptance of the task that must be completed. It is twisted into the politics of production, and the producers are decidedly female. Through visual referencing of modern dance and performance tropes, these ‘labourised’ women turn the question of female exposure and gain to art production. The factory line is thus conjured as demarcation of this particular space; of abject bodily focus and fragmentation, but also of ridiculing our own complicity.
(Exhibited as a sculptural installation (sculpture and audio of sculpture in action) and durational performance in False Positives (part 1), Barnes Building, Glasgow School of Art, 2018 - A group show, curated and featuring work by Allegra Salandini, Grace Higgins Brown, Rachel Woodside, and Rebecca Thomson).
[Massive thank you to the performers in the video: Paula Doherty, Esther Gamsu, Ella Mottram, and Allegra Salandini].
[Massive thank you to Alan Calvert].
[Additional photo credits to Rebecca Thomson and Harriet Gould].
Kinetic sculpture: 120 x 170cms.
Audio: 5m, 24s, looped.
Performance: approx. 15 minutes.
Spankomatic acknowledges the absurdity of serial production and mass consumerist experience with a constant cycle of spanking. As the movement of factories and a progressive abundance of object-hood changes our relationship with bodies and the bodily is alluded to, art production is caught up in the spokes, and questions of punishment and ritual are raised with female-identifying bodies offered in a satirically armed alliance of the abject-grotesque and female empowerment. The question of degradation is met with looks of blank boredom, an acceptance of the task that must be completed. It is twisted into the politics of production, and the producers are decidedly female. Through visual referencing of modern dance and performance tropes, these ‘labourised’ women turn the question of female exposure and gain to art production. The factory line is thus conjured as demarcation of this particular space; of abject bodily focus and fragmentation, but also of ridiculing our own complicity.
(Exhibited as a sculptural installation (sculpture and audio of sculpture in action) and durational performance in False Positives (part 1), Barnes Building, Glasgow School of Art, 2018 - A group show, curated and featuring work by Allegra Salandini, Grace Higgins Brown, Rachel Woodside, and Rebecca Thomson).
[Massive thank you to the performers in the video: Paula Doherty, Esther Gamsu, Ella Mottram, and Allegra Salandini].
[Massive thank you to Alan Calvert].
[Additional photo credits to Rebecca Thomson and Harriet Gould].
