Luis Mejico: Rubberneck
April 19 – May 20, 2018
Opening Reception: Fri. April 20, 6-9pm
View images of the installation and performance
Photo by Alex Sullivan
SOHO20 is pleased to present Rubberneck, an exhibition of video and soft sculpture by Luis Mejico, and the final exhibition in the 2017/2018 Season of the +/- Project Space.
Rubberneck includes two videos and soft sculptures exploring fantasy, vulnerability, and the liminal, undefined space of queerness. Mejico views transhood as the complete undoing of the current understanding of “self,” as it refuses to define anyone simply by their form. Likewise, her installation looks at queerness as an identity, a frame of mind, and also a physical, autonomous zone of being, hovering just beyond what we understand to be reality.
The videos present two stories of trans individuals, both engaging in different performances of feminized gender. Untitled (Understudy) reveals the yearning for and anxiety about flirtation and self-representation. By contrast, Skivvy is an affected, scathing critique of the oppression that resides within the expected labor and presentation of the feminine body. The works present no salvation for the characters; instead, they ask the viewer to pause and see how the world remains unfit for a trans body and personhood.
The intimacy and discomfort of the videos weighs carefully against Mejico’s soft sculptures – confused and illogical windows peeking into campy and idyllic landscapes. Capturing the fiction of these pleasant landscapes, these sculptures are cheekily self-aware of the promises that utopia fails to provide. The cartoonish quality of these works are a reminder that there really is nothing beyond the windowpane, in fact, there is no real window to begin with. Through these works, Mejico invites the viewer feel discomfort through the alluring half-truths that live between the real and the unreal.
On the occasion of the opening reception, Luis Mejico will present Swansly, a durational performance featuring Garrett Allen and Jimena Lucero.
