‘Bitten by a Radioactive Artist’ Installation. Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan (October 2017)
Because Arachne was no longer human her weaving was not of consequence to the gods. Is art not like an animal impulse? Maybe only god should make that distinction.
Drawing inspiration from the Greek Myth of Arachne,‘Bitten by a Radioactive Artist’ is a meditation on the human/animal relationship. On classification; hierarchies. Human/animal(nature); art/non-art.
Arachne's punishment, her transformation into a spider, does not diminish her weaving, does not take away her skill or drive. A spider, Arachne is still the word greatest weaver. The punishment is the devaluation of her works; that what she creates cannot be "art."
‘Bitten by a Radioactive Artist’ asks what if not instinct - an irrational, animal compulsion- drives artists to create? How can we know what we are making is art?
God only knows.
The installation was site-specific, weaved directly into- and exhibited in the artist's work space during their month long residency at Studio Kura, Itoshima, japan. The webs made from string, tied to fixtures of the room and to varios found objects. Supporting work (studies and drawings) were included in the exhibittion as well.
