“BEWARE THE JUICEPEOPLE”
This collection comes from the 20th century ideology of “culture cannibalism” as applied to a realm of contemporary American subculture. First introduced in 1929 by Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade, the essay Manifesto Antropofago defines cultural cannibalism as a culture consuming itself, neither fully embracing nor denying both its internal and external influences as a means of developing a true sense of cultural distinction and autonomy. Taking the ideology outside of its post-colonial context and applying it to 2000s Italian-Americana, I thought about the distinction between the mythology and actuality within this commonly exaggerated phenomenon, one that still aesthetically defines my own place of origin. I began by acknowledging the myths, made known through popular media (mafiosos, guidos, housewives, and trashy party girls) and then delved into my actuality of New Jersey through a nostalgic lens, the common tradition of going “down the shore” and my connection to the ocean that was developed there. Furthermore upon reading tales of mythologies at sea, of sirens and sailors, I was exposed to stories of cannibalism in a literal sense, man-eating mermaids and starving shipwrecked whalers, which lead to further development into the textural relationship between skin and water.
BEWARE THE JUICEPEOPLE includes characters (“Melusina” and “Siscyllia”) man-eating mermaid mafiosas desperate to escape yet so deeply embedded into their culturally corrupted, cannibalistically carnivorous world that they too are bloodthirsty consumers of flesh and land.
I. MELUSINA
Melusina lounges before her daily swim in her artificial estuary, bearing the relics of husbands and mistresses past and relishing in the taste of sweet revenge and overly sun-soaked Sicilian skin.
Caught in the net of marital bliss turned all too soon into a web of cannibalized shreds the more they misbehaved… a tapestry of “wifebeater” mens undershirts, scraps of cheap party dresses, a descending tangle of jewelry given as tokens of misguided loyalty…
Human leather and sea glass choker, sunglasses made from stuffed skin and wire.
Cannibalized layers of mens undershirts reveal a skeletal silhouette.
She is the Madonna ideal of domestic glamour despite her devilish ways, the utmost suburban housewife with a taste for red tomato gravy and red table wine… laced with her secret sugo de sangue.
Time to let her tail loose before another beautiful, brutal day of adultery.
II. SISCLLYIA
Sisycllia strives to maintain the proper physique as a professional mistress and caterer to the philandering.
So entangled are her daily and nightly life that she dons a tracksuit flapper of sorts, where reconstructed rhinestone branding converges with sea glass fish scales perfect for partying somewhere between the ‘20s and early 2000s.
As much half-leopard as half-fish… a siren who prefers to stalk her prey on land.
She parties into the early hours… only to sleep with the fishes.
