Exhibits,

Marianne Diaz land of smiles

Opening: Wednesday 1 July, 6-8pm Dates: 1 – 18 July 2015

These works explore the female form in unexpected ways, mashing-up images from online dating classifieds with a series of digital actions such as animated GIFs, built-in filters, cheap digital FX and TextEdit.

In these works, women with pursed lips and coy smiles gyrate against sparking skies and crystal waters – their forms fractured and multiplied as if caught in some momentary computer glitch. Diaz takes this ‘glitch’ as a liminal space unbound by temporality, specificity and reality where cultural identity can be displaced. Tropes of sexuality, femininity and race are exaggerated to their zenith in a lurid celebration that’s at once nauseating and absurd.

Symbolically the women in ‘land of smiles’ aren’t really smiling. They’ve been reduced to gross caricatures with splayed limbs and deformities. But from a distance, it’s all shiny surfaces, gaudy decoration and kaleidoscopic patterns titilating the viewers gaze. There’s also the added novelty of the lenticular which creates depth and a simulation of virtual reality. These illusions are seductive and while the viewer knows its all fake, there’s a constant desire for more dazzling effects. Anything beyond the surface just doesn’t matter.

This exhibition is supported by The Yarra City Council