cheese column

solo exhibition 4/6 - 4/11, 2019
site-specific installation at Powder Room, Pittsburgh, PA

Cheese Column is a site-specific installation created in a renovated industrial space. In this work, I replicated a existing column, and then put the replicant on the top of a toy train which allows the replicant to move around the space. At the same time, the tracks of the replicant trapped a cartoon “mouse” sitting on a roomba running in the middle. Inspired by American classic cartoon animation Tom and Jerry, I consider the typical cat-and-mouse duo represents a perpetual power exchange between two interdependent forces. This power relation between this duo symbolizes the power wrestling between us and our built environment. Designing, constructing, and controlling the physical built space, we are also constantly modified and objectified by it. In Cheese Column, I used a seemingly absurd cartoon language to exaggerate such power wrestlings, thus opening up conversations on who holds the agency of our physical surroundings.

material: foam, wood, cement, fabric, modified power wheels

video documentation: