PARTICIPATION
Installation:
Compost Touch
For Charivari, I propose a new interactive sound installation and participatory performance composed of a series of cubes and other sonified objects projecting a symphony of sounds derived from the more-than- human ecosystem of plastic metamorphosis, contamination and repair at the heart of my practice. Wherever possible, these cubes will house living agents of (dis)repair (mealworms, wax worms, darkling beetles, red wrigglers, black soldier fly larvae, isopods, snails) whose sound will be amplified live. Additional cubes and vessels will hold related materials like mud, water, asphalt rubble, and plastic trash which will remain silent unless touched by a participant.
The vessels will be propped on pillars and slabs of raw polystyrene foam that has been partially consumed by my colony of mealworms and partially decomposed driftwood found at plastic-polluted beaches. Participants will be invited to also rest their bodies on these slabs and trunks of decomposing plastic and wood.
2024 On-site Event Submission Form – Google Forms
Ashton S. Phillips is an interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, working with the earth, water, pollution, and more-than-human agents of (dis)repair as primary materials and collaborators. He is interested in the transness of material, the plasticity of bodies (human and nonhuman), and the promise of queer/trans ecological praxis, including interspecies collaboration, experimental “play,” and speculative (un)making, as pathways for making meaning, building resiliency, and generating new forms of being in the Capitalocene. Recent solo shows and public art commissions include Worm Hole at TSA, LA; Womb/Tomb/BooM at MICA; Feast + Famine at Cerritos College; and Sky Burial at Debs Park.
Artist Location: Long Beach, CA
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