HaHa is a body of work that explores the role of humor in art by revealing the potential for laughter in objects, spaces, and within ourselves. Rachel Debuque presents a series of installations that defamiliarizes the familiar and reveal laughter as a transcendent bodily phenomenon that holds us in the present moment. Through crafted objects, installation, and video, the viewer is beckoned to see amusement in unexpected places.
I am Dead
2017
Decker Gallery at MICA
Baltimore, Maryland
I am Dead is a site specific installation created for the Decker Gallery at Maryland Institute for Contemporary art as part of the Soundheims’s Semi Finalist Exhibition. The installation consisted of a custom made autopsy table/beach lounger and two video works. A monitor playing the video work, Watermelon Makeover sits on top of the lounger and features a 20 minute loop of a watermelon receiving a makeover. I am Dead video is featured on the painted wall above the lounger and features a makeover on a dead girl with intermitted text. The audio component is a church organ playing Abba’s S.O.S.
Glisten (Installation and Performance)
2016
Cue Art Foundation
New York, New York
Glisten was installation commissioned by the Cue Art Foundation in New York City, New York. Glisten featured a professional female bodybuilder, who performed an exercise routine, made slime, and posed for an audience. The female bodybuilder showcased her physical strength and ability to flex and contort her muscles. Like the slime, she is mutable and transgresses the boundaries of strength, gender, and femininity.
Mango Sherbet is an exhibition designed for Vox Popuili in Philadelphia, PA. It consisted of 9 vignettes and a single video work. The exhibition is centers around the carabao mango from the Philippines. These mangoes are said to be the sweetest in the world. The brightly painted ceramic mangoes are found inside 9 colorful vignettes. The form of the mango is transformed, replicated, and fused with other objects. The mango changes and blends into the many environments, showcasing its’ chameleon abilities. The exhbition’s sherbet inspired palette invokes a sense of innocence and over the top sweetness. The video monitor plays BLK MNGO, a 20 minute video of a child’s hands, holding and smashing the ceramic mangoes to reveal a belly full of colorful juice. Each smash is celebrated with a rain of confetti.
How to Train Your Pet Turtle to Retrieve Lemons for Lemon Drop Juice
2014
The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art
Omaha, Nebraska
Watch Video: https://vimeo.com/142205228
How to Train Your Pet Turtle to Retrieve Lemons for Lemon Drop Juice is an installation and video work created at The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. The installation includes a colorful, lemon forrest, in front of a hazy, blue background. A little girl and her pet turtle sleep above the forrest on a platform and travel below to retrieve lemons for lemon drop juice. The video outlines instructions for how to train your pet turtle to retrieve lemons for lemon drop juice with actress, Fiona Tobin and Steve the turtle.
Bemis Center Interview: https://vimeo.com/191055528
Video was created in collaboration with Justin Plakas. Video was curated by the Institute for New Feeling’s FELTBOOK project in 2015
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Cacti Smash
2013
Georgia Museum of Art
Athens, Georgia
Cacti Smash was an installation and performance that investigated the lines between work and leisure. During the performance the two female characters relaxed in hybrid pool/ science lab. When they hear a bell, they go to work by unearthing moon cacti, dissecting them and containing them in test tubes. They repeat this cycle for the duration of the performance.
Chirpy Fur / 2015
Redux Contemporary Art Center
Charleston, South Carolina
Chirpy Fur was exhibition designed for Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, South Carolina. Sculptor Constantin Brancusi said “To keep one’s art young one must imitate young animals. What do they do? They play.” Chirpy fur embraces the art’s essential element of play in art while considering it’s potential opposites: organization, ritual, and work.The collection of works use materials that speak to this dualism. Soft furs are paired with playful colored forms in organized patterns. Bold geometric objects are lined on top of a work table. These works express a tension in that is all looks playful, yet it’s not playful at all.
Press Release: https://reduxstudios.org/rachel-debuque-diane-meyer-lori-larusso/
