Doe vs. Siren: On Metabolization and Shapeshifting
We cordially invite you to the Medium Gallery for the opening of the exhibitionentitled Doe vs. Siren: On Metabolization and Shapeshifting curated by Doris Sisková & Václav Janoščík, which will take place on Tuesday January 21, 2025.
Where?
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MEDIUM gallery,
- Hviezdoslavovo nám. 18, Bratislava
When?
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Opening: Tuesday, 21. 1. 2025, 6:00 p.m. - with a performance by Nikola Balberčáková & Jakub Pohlodek performed by Saara Hukka & Teuta Jonuzi.
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Duration: 21. 1. – 2. 3. 2025
Curators:
Doris Sisková & Václav Janoščík
Exhibited artists:
Alex Quicho, Bogna Konior, Camille Wiesel, Junn Zhou, Michal Golák, Nikola Balberčáková & Jakub Pohlodek
Performers:
Saara Hukka & Teuta Jonuzi
Architecture:
Damián Cehlárik
Graphic design:
Adam Morong
Annotation
Bunnies, lambs and Bambis. The online space has been invaded by the cute, evolving far past cat memes. Our identities and behaviours embody this interlocking of pure and commercial, innocent and exploitative, or the cute and the gory.
As Alex Quicho puts it in her essay Prey Mode: “By all means, be soft, gentle, devourable, as a trick or for real, just to see what happens next.” Prey mode means making peace with everything being against you. It’s cute and harmless. And so are you, while actively subverting a fixed power structure. Echoing Octavia E. Butler’s character Anyanwu from Wild Seed, a shapeshifter who becomes what she consumes, it raises the question: what if the prey desires the predator, or the act of being eaten? What if the consumed becomes an active participant in the predator’s existence?
Our exhibition takes inspiration from a girl-coded TikTok makeup trend Doe Eyes vs. Siren Eyes – a hyper-present tool of the ultimate conversion. We are aiming to represent self-reflective dualism, where the idea of prey and predator merge one another. Girls online value both the gentle, doe-like approach and the seductive, siren-like allure in equal measure because both are powerful strategies in the art of persuasion. Both, for all girls online, as a trick or for real, are becoming models and metaphors on how to navigate through traps and predatory instincts, from the technological to the gendered, and everything in-between.
The exhibited works include texts and performative reading by N. Balberčáková and J. Pohlodek, performed by Saara Hukka & Teuta Jonuzi; videoworks by J. Zhou, on visualising the metamorphosis and representation of queerness and by C. Wiesel on post-living online space; video lectures by A. Quicho and B. Konior, providing a rich thought space that reflects upon the seduction and figuration in online spaces. Bringing together established and emerging artists, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective for post-platform thinking. While theory-rich, it centres on embodiment and experience, encouraging visitors to reflect on the poetics and cooptation of innocence in our online behaviour.
Partners:
Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Czech Centre Bratislava
