“This project is based upon the product being grown from the manufacturer’s blood,” says PHILTH HAUS representative Andra, about the collective’s “anti-aging, sex-enhancing, and emotion-augmenting” health-food product, developed to explore privilege and exploitation in a globalized economy. “It forces this sort of person with disposable income, who maybe is already a bit infatuated with wellness culture, to rely upon actually contaminating themselves with that person, who they normally would actually do everything to sort of remove themselves from.” Speaking to editor Steph Kretowicz for AQNB’s latest Artist Statement podcast, the Berlin-based artist it talking about the LYLEX 1.0 fungal compound, infused with the life force of the disenfranchised.
Curated by Mandy Harris Williams and presented by Feminist Center for Creative Work (FCCW), the project was programmed in four phases, across three venues in Los Angeles between June and August this year. It’s first iteration at Human Resources had been violently overturned by an evening music event attendee, its sculptural encasements and modified mushroom powder lying scattered across the floor. The incident was not a part of the programme. It’s here that the speculative nature of not only the work, but the Southern Californian city where it was presented becomes clear, as a character from the exhibition’s accompanying text materializes at the blurred border between fiction and reality.
‘Trigger Warning’ is the latest in our Artist Statement podcast series, with past episodes featuring Terre Thaemlitz, Nichole Fitch & Christopher Adams-Cohen, Jennifer Mehigan, Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, and more. The full episode is accessible to our subscribers right now on Patreon. Sign up now: www.patreon.com/aqnb.**
