 Eloise Fornieles Carrion Paradise Row proudly presents "Carrion", the concluding chapter of Eloise Fornieles' dramatic trilogy of performance installations, following "Senescence" and "From the Deep Waters of Sleep". In this 72-hour performance, Fornieles engages with violence and consumption. In a land strewn with discarded clothes stands a skeleton building in which Fornieles presides, guarding over an animal carcass. For the duration of the performance Fornieles will consume no food, while she lances the hanging meat with messages of apology collected from the audience, in a gesture that combines the protest of the hunger strike with a bowing to Western body-idealism. Fornieles' performances combine installations of a sensual and immersive nature with an uneasy voyeurism to create a dramatic environment of heightened meaning. At the centre of each of her performances, Fornieles engages in a ritualistic task that places her in a painful or vulnerable situation. Spectators are invited to communicate or contribute in their own individual way, transforming the singular act into a collective event. Compounding the difficulty in accepting simple ritualistic attempts to obtain absolution is the active, voyeuristic presence of two cameramen who will also take part in the performance, as both witnesses and documentary makers. Circling the space in quasi-military costumes - designed for the performance by artist and costume designer Kirsty MacLeod - the cameramen resemble vultures, alluding to the symbiotic yet problematic relationship between photographers and their subjects and further highlighting the manner in which individuals are sacrificed to the power of the image, feeding society's voracious appetite for visual consumption. The footage of the performance will comprise part of a film commissioned by the Fashion in Film Festival to be screened at Tate Modern on 10 May 2008. Exhibition: 7 - 9 March 2008 Gallery hours: Wed-Sun 12 - 6 pm Paradise Row 17 Hereford St, (off Cheshire St) GB-London E2 6EX Telephone +44 (0)207 6133311 Email info@paradiserow.com www.paradiserow.com |
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