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

A woman stands behind a door against a wall during a performance. Someone is holding a bright pink light that is shining on her and lighting the room.
Andrea Illés performs as part of 'Stranger than fiction', 2024, West Space Studio. Photography by Kenneth Suico.

The Stranger than fiction evolutive program continues with sorry I was so hungry, a duration livestream performance by Andrea Illés', grappling with the Sisyphean task of image-making as true representation of the self.

The artist occupied her studio, making images with her body, viewable both in-person and transcribed by screens, in the gallery, or on our computers or phones. The audience was asked to decide how to view Andrea's transcription.

"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 am performing for several 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
A woman sitting in front of a computer bathed in red light uses a webcam reflection to do her eyeliner.
A figure bathed in Pink and Red light stands behind a blue door that has black and white pictures of marble statues taped to it. On the door it says "S4 WEST SPACE"
A blurred image of a camera set up for a livestream. There is a figure on the screen crawling toward the camera
A dancer stands beside an open door. A figure sitting amongst a seated crowd on the floor is raising a hot pink flurescent light, emphasising the dance's movement in the otherwise dark space. there are 5 posters on the door behind them. The crowd sitting extends out into the hallway through the door.
A group of people watching Andrea Illes perform in a small room bathed in red light. Andrea is rolling around on the floor performing
A mac computer sits on the desk in the West Space Office. On the screen we see a livestream performance and people watching.
A mac computer screen sits in the west space office with a figure holding a microphone is close up on the screen. She has long white nails and long dark curly hair
A hand outstretched holds an iphone watching a livestream performance. On the phone screen we see a woman holding a microphone with long curly hair.

Andrea Illés is a performance artist whose auto portraits explore the relational chasm between self and other. Merging dance, text, sound, and video, her enquiry emerges from the agony and bliss she feels being perceived and, often working with states of overwhelm, Andrea is interested in the possibilities found when bodies fail.

Related

“Stranger than fiction”
Archie Barry, Teresa Busuttil, Nicholas Currie, Andrea Illés, Rosie Isaac, Basim Magdy, Rä di Martino, Sammaneh Pourshafighi and Joanna Kitto
29 June → 31 Aug 2024

A film still from Basim Magdy's film 'FEARDEATHLOVEDEATH'. A close up shot of an eye with the reflection of a face within the iris. The whole image is cast in red colour.

Joanna Kitto, On storytelling and subversion
2024