An Introduction

'Gaspilleur Studio' started after we were awarded this gallery show, as part of each receiving the Pougialis Fine Art Award, we decided to collaborate on a show that would encapsulate some of our overlapping ideas, and themes rather than showing our separate works. From there we decided to work within the overlaps of plastic, waste, fine art and fashion. Scent was another main idea for our collaboration, as we are both fond of ‘bad’ smelling things, but also interested in how runway shows and fashion houses are funded by the sales of perfume. We then created our own anti-perfumes, having the gallery space serve as a physical representation of these scents, interpreting them into a variety of other media. We discussed, shared ideas, made plans, changed everything, shifted concepts, and then started making. Experimented, conversed, existed, created, destroyed, and thus, Gaspilleur Studio was formed.

The Pougialis Fine Art Award is given based on academic merit as well as well as demonstration of talent, ability, and/ or accomplishments.

CONTENT WARNING: VOMIT

CONTENT WARNING: VOMIT

Victoria's piece, 'Starving Artist' , was a video in which they are shown at a table, squirting homemade paint onto a plate and eating eat. Off-screen, the artist pukes the paint onto a canvas. For the exhibition, the video was playing on one wall, with the two vomit pieces displayed on the adjacent wall. In front of that was a table, with the dishes and paint tubes set up as in the video. This piece represents the frustration Victoria was experiencing at the time, constantly worried about a job and money, or lack thereof. The guilt that came with buying nice art supplies or food, feeling like it had to be one or the other. There is then an aspect of dedication, a willingness, to put their art practice and career over their health. A sort of masochistic desire, proclaiming utmost devotion to the creation of art.

iph's piece, no title (why is to be human to be [i’m tired of being here]), 2020, was a live performance where the artist walked in a circle around the sculpture, pausing behind it and repositioning to wait for the next person to walk in the room. The sculpture was made from a plaster cast of the artist's thighs vacuum sealed in a garbage bag, then rested on top of a concrete plinth, with a lit paper cast of the artists face attached to a computer-generated female torso. iph wore a 3-d printed vagina attached to a harness made of a cut-up white poplin button down shirt. The room was covered with canvas and an altered-loop sound piece played, resembling a distorted heart beat with bass that rattled the structures of the installation. The piece was about iph confronting themselves, and this other 'wanted' side of them, all while existing for public display, while simultaneously being about iph's discontent with art, specifically painting, and wanting to create an installation where an audience could experience the feeling of a painting, where it could feel pure and raw, without creating a sellable object.