“sorry I was so hungry”
Andrea Illés
9 Aug → 31 Aug 2024
Studio

sorry I was so hungry is a durational performance by Andrea Illés that grapples with the Sisyphean task of image-making as true representation of the self.

For three weeks, the artist occupies the West Space Studio making images with her body viewable both in-person during gallery hours and on an unbroken 24/7 livestream, screening in the gallery and on our personal devices.

"I am looking to classical sculpture, myth, and my experiences to expand how a body, it's stories, and its failures can be comprehended.

My research originates from an inability to hold or move my body in positions and alignments that make images that reflect how I understand myself. I search for figurations that hold a glimmer of my self-image and try to replicate them in front of audiences. This is an impossible task, I can never posture myself into the grace of Daphne or Hermaphroditus, even if my body position is accurate. You can never fully understand how I am feeling or vice versa. Both the failure and the faithful attempt are important to me.

In my experience, 'full' empathy is myth. When trying to understand space or feeling we flatten their dimensions. Flattening can diminish understanding but it can also elevate understanding beyond the confusion of spatial or verbal communication or even the simplifying power of categorisation, especially when it is accompanied by complicating elements. A flattened image with complication can offer a glimpse of something inexplicable. With an interested in the relationship between narrative and binaries like deception<>truth; real<>imagined; inside<>outside, I perform for consecutive days, methodically translating image and experience. This plays out in front of a camera, that acts as a mirror, while the faltering translations, and the transitions between them, become a score." — Andrea Illés