MPA

“RED IN VIEW”

Whitney Museum of American Art

New York, 99 Gansevoort Street

Following the tradition of Body Art, performance and installation artist MPA turns to her own body to dissect social and political norms for which human body often times becomes the subject of endurance. Appropriating her own physicality as a territory for experimentation on societal dynamics, the L.A. based artist plunges into a state of transcendence that is both introspective and collective. RED IN VIEW, her three-month tenure at The Whitney, combines various elements of her multifaceted oeuvre, blending performance, photography, and social engagement. 

MPA, left/ Entrance, 2014-2016 Archival pigment print mounted on mat board Courtesy of the artist and Higher Pictures; right/ Surrender, 2014-2016 Archival pigment print mounted on mat board Courtesy of the artist and Higher Pictures

The artist, who exhibited her performances at various international venues including Stedelijk Museum, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, and Swiss Institute, in this exhibition examines Mars and the humans’ fascination with the idea of locating there in near future. In her orchestration, the red planet appears as a strange land to discover as well as a source of energy she urges herself to resist. “Looking at Mars, this imagined space, reflects most humans back to Earth.” says MPA, reflecting on the sense of Utopia people attribute to this other planet. As an artist whose work engages with the impact of governing discourses on human body, such association with alternative realms offers the means to dismantle and reform existing notions on human experience. 

“Performance is the event in which I devote my body to an action. This commitment is a choice, and choice met with action can read as a demonstration. The energetic is that sensation that struggles for articulation by existing in and around fixations. Simultaneously beginning and ending, it interrupts definition.” notes MPA on her commitment to turn her body into a vessel for exploration of the undiscovered. On view at the museum’s lobby, the exhibition will finalize in February with Orbit, MPA’s ten-day performance including artists Malin Arnell and Amapola Prada. 

November 11, 2016 — February 27, 2017