OVERVIEW

Understudy for Animal Farm is an interactive, performative installation that explores issues of power, status, and identity. The work begins with a custom-built movable cart that I designed to be set up in the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market and to display 30 individual pig masks (or hoods) fashioned out of pillowcases. I created the pillowcase pig hoods so they could be handled and worn. The cart includes a large ornate mirror to entice passers-by into choosing a pig to try on. Once the participant puts on a pig hood, I take their photograph which is later loaded onto a dedicated website for the project. Individual images become visible on the site once the original participant has “unlocked” the image with an access code. In this way, the viewer takes on responsibility for their image by making it public.

By inviting viewers to interact directly with Understudy for Animal Farm, I hope to question and expose the roles we all play in maintaining power hegemonies and hierarchies. The pillowcase itself evokes feelings of intimacy and comfort. However, as the mask is put on and obscures the participant’s identity, it becomes a veil, a hood, even a gag. At the same time, the prints and patterns on the fabric establish and evoke their own cultural distinctions by drawing upon ideas of “good taste.” I am interested in exploring how the domestic realm comes to symbolize complete totalitarian control in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. As the pigs begin to walk upright and move into the deserted farmhouse, it is the wool plaid and floral chintz of rural England that indicate the pigs’ authority. In this way, Orwell creates an unexpected friction between the menacing force of the pigs’ tyrannical rule and the mundane, domestic sphere.

IMPLEMENTATION
• Lumber/materials for the construction of the cart plus ornate frame with mirror
• Pillowcases for the remaining 15 pig hoods
• Domain fees/webhosting plus assistance in design and building the interactive website
• Transportation to and from the SF Farmer’s Market over a period of a month in the summer of 2014

DETAILS
At this point, I have 15 of the 30 pig hoods completed. Each pig hood takes approximately a week to make. I will sp the spring of 2014 constructing the portable cart display with the goal of having the cart in the SF Farmer’s Market in the summer of 2014.

IMPACT
This is the first interactive performance project I have ever attempted. It is an essential step forward as I continue to work with performative fabric constructions. By inviting participants to interact directly with Understudy for Animal Farm, I hope to question the roles we all play in maintaining power hegemonies and hierarchies, as well as explore how the domestic realm comes to symbolize complete totalitarian control in Animal Farm. Working with the SF Farmer’s Market allows for an immediate narrative correspondence between Animal Farm and the actual market, while providing a diverse community to participate in the interaction.

MORE

http://ligiabouton.com/art/upcoming-project/understudy-for-animal-farm/