Totemic Taxonomies (2014)
Collaborative exhibition with Cathleen Faubert at Science Museum Oklahoma.
Collaborative exhibition with Cathleen Faubert at Science Museum Oklahoma.
"When looking for contemporary totems, we are immediately drawn to clear potentials that highlight relationships to the animal as a type of emblematic guide. For instance, sports fans’ identify with team mascots, pre-teens identify with ‘Hello Kitty’, and the social media service ‘Twitter’ promotes a bird that appears to be a Black-Naped Monarch. We are interested in spectacular, carnival environments where such animals are both real and hyper-real, or virtual, characters - the orca of amusement sea parks and white tigers from Las Vegas magic shows."
Press: Art Focus Oklahoma - ‘Collecting & Connecting'; The Oklahoman - ‘Cabinets of Curiosity’
Above: Totemic Taxonomies (2014)
Above: Lines of Distinction [objects] (2014) Archival Inkjet Print
Above: Cowboys and Indians (2014)
Above: Bunnies (2014) Custom Electronics, Toy Bunnies, Carrot
Above: Objects (2014) Various Objects, Archival Inkjet Photographs
"The objects presented here underscore our varied curiosity with twenty first century totems. If totemism is a system within which connections or kinships are formed between beings, such as plants, animals and humans, then what function could a ‘totem’, as object or symbol, represent within our current context?"
Above: Moo (2014) Custom Electronics, Toy Cows, Toy Mooing Cans, Paper, Paint, Wood
"The totemic cow has long symbolized a nurturing and mothering quality. The ‘totemic cow’ of the 21st century is a milking cow with iconic black spots. This cow occupies a space that continues to suggest nurturing through calcium-based healthy teeth campaigns, while also suggesting a forewarned experience of biological mechanization and homogenization [cattle ranches]."
"The totemic cow has long symbolized a nurturing and mothering quality. The ‘totemic cow’ of the 21st century is a milking cow with iconic black spots. This cow occupies a space that continues to suggest nurturing through calcium-based healthy teeth campaigns, while also suggesting a forewarned experience of biological mechanization and homogenization [cattle ranches]."
Above: Orca (2014)
"This video shows an orca in a constant, oscillating spin that highlights the animal as an object. Furthermore, the orca is trapped out of water where its performativity contradicts the location where its custodial [totemic] space is effective, the sea. The video is displayed with an orca skull, which asks viewers to consider their curiosity with oddities as real objects collide with our virtualized assumptions.
Above: Star Wars Toys (2006) Star Wars Toys collected by Froslie as a child paired a video of the toy collection.
"Many children invest compulsive totemic identifications into virtual, or absent figures when they collect and play with dolls such Barbie, G.I. Joe, or Star Wars. This mode of play indicates a discontinuity between a concrete possession and the fantasized, or virtual connection. As adults, our narratives of selfhood might be considered internalized forms of these early totemic moments, or the virtualization of the toy action figures; consequently, an adult’s totemic persona is an uncertain interplay between a virtual guide and the self as avatar."
"Many children invest compulsive totemic identifications into virtual, or absent figures when they collect and play with dolls such Barbie, G.I. Joe, or Star Wars. This mode of play indicates a discontinuity between a concrete possession and the fantasized, or virtual connection. As adults, our narratives of selfhood might be considered internalized forms of these early totemic moments, or the virtualization of the toy action figures; consequently, an adult’s totemic persona is an uncertain interplay between a virtual guide and the self as avatar."
Above: Kermit (2006) Custom Electronics, Stuffed Kermit Toy, Atari 2600 Game Controller
Above: Dust Ball (2014) Dryer Lint