Nest-Un-Settled II
by aricoco
2013, Mixed media/Performance for video
Dimensions variable
Inspired by the Caddisfly larvae who make cocoons from objects from their local surroundings, I created a cocoon out of various kinds of left-over fabric scraps that I come across everyday. In the performance for video, I go through metamorphosis: a caterpillar turning into an adult insect. In this piece, I surrender to a sense of once belonging to a self-contained life form, then release myself from the comfortable sanctuary into the cruelty of the world, longing for a way to fit myself into that condition again.
by aricoco
2013, Mixed media/Performance for video
Dimensions variable
Inspired by the Caddisfly larvae who make cocoons from objects from their local surroundings, I created a cocoon out of various kinds of left-over fabric scraps that I come across everyday. In the performance for video, I go through metamorphosis: a caterpillar turning into an adult insect. In this piece, I surrender to a sense of once belonging to a self-contained life form, then release myself from the comfortable sanctuary into the cruelty of the world, longing for a way to fit myself into that condition again.
I am interested in how human communities might form and thrive without centralized leadership and power privilege. I explore models for non-hierarchical human potential through eusociality, which is the highest level of organization unique to the social insect world, characterized by cooperative brood care and division of labor. I investigate biologically coded altruistic characteristics of social insects within female-dominated collectives, where a fertile Queen is dependent on sterile Workers for her existence while the colony depends on her for its reproduction.
I create environments for provisional habitation, combined with sculptural garments/bags and masks that serve as my protective living gear. Interacting with these environments and objects, I invent ritualistic play that revives my childhood experiences in Japan and interprets and resists the influences of my culture, particularly the contradictions inherent in Japanese attitudes toward nature and the presumed natural order of society.
Inheriting hyper-aestheticized sensibilities and rejecting the malicious patriarchal privilege under which I was raised, I harbor a deep-seated fear of the untamed environment, especially insects, while also paradoxically identifying with both the power and the vulnerability embodied in insect life. Dressed in my nature-proof garments, disguising myself as an insect Queen, I surrender her/my powerless body to the habitat, where cultivated by others, we gain power through relationship. Embracing my fear of insects, I expose parallels between human societal organization and non-hierarchical social insect systems. I examine the concept of temporary community building, while questioning the privilege of human dominance.
I create environments for provisional habitation, combined with sculptural garments/bags and masks that serve as my protective living gear. Interacting with these environments and objects, I invent ritualistic play that revives my childhood experiences in Japan and interprets and resists the influences of my culture, particularly the contradictions inherent in Japanese attitudes toward nature and the presumed natural order of society.
Inheriting hyper-aestheticized sensibilities and rejecting the malicious patriarchal privilege under which I was raised, I harbor a deep-seated fear of the untamed environment, especially insects, while also paradoxically identifying with both the power and the vulnerability embodied in insect life. Dressed in my nature-proof garments, disguising myself as an insect Queen, I surrender her/my powerless body to the habitat, where cultivated by others, we gain power through relationship. Embracing my fear of insects, I expose parallels between human societal organization and non-hierarchical social insect systems. I examine the concept of temporary community building, while questioning the privilege of human dominance.
aricoco (Ari Tabei) is an interdisciplinary artist, living and working in NYC. Born and raised in Tokyo, she received a BA in International Legal Studies from Sophia University, Tokyo, and went to study studio art at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, and later earned an MFA from University of Connecticut in sculpture and video performance art in 2007. She moved to NYC after graduation and was awarded the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship for 2008-09. aricoco has since participated in numerous artists in residencies including: LMCC Swing Space, Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program, Sculpture Space, Blue Sky Project, Triangle Workshop, AAI Rotating Studio Program, Museum of Art and Design Open Studios, BRIC Media Fellowship, RBPMW Studio Immersion Project, AIM program, Institute for Electronic Arts, Anderson Center, Target Margin Theater Institute Fellowship, BRIC Visual Artist Residency and Culture Push. She has exhibited and performed extensively in New York City. Her solo exhibitions were at A.I.R. gallery in 2008, New York Studio Gallery in 2010, Real Art Ways in 2011, Sunroom Project Space at Wave Hill in 2015 and at La MaMa Galleria in 2018. In 2013, she went back to Japan to participate in a group exhibition and performed at Kawasaki City Museum in Japan. She was a recipient of NYFA Artist’s Fellowship in the category of Interdisciplinary work in 2015 and Franklin Furnace Fund in 2016-17. Most recently, she was awarded LMCC Creative Engagement Fund in 2020. www.aricoco.com