Theo Triantafyllidis “Role Play”

Meredith Rosen Gallery

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Meredith Rosen Gallery presents Role Play, an exhibition by gallery artist Theo Triantafyllidis.

In this new body of work, Theo Triantafyllidis re-imagines the gallery space as his own virtual studio. He embodies an Ork avatar, who uses digital tools to create 3D forms, which are then manifested physically as large-scale wood sculptures. This process is recorded through DIY Motion Capture and displayed on two mobile screens in the gallery. By moving these screen structures throughout the space, the audience is able to view the sculptures while simultaneously experiencing the artist’s digital performance of creating them.

In creating the Ork character, Triantafyllidis pairs prevalent video game tropes with the performative persona of The Artist. Ork Aesthetics are inspired by medieval contraptions, engineering tools, brutalism and gaming culture. The artist’s performance considers the concept of virtual labor and production in today’s hybrid-reality work environments, as the Ork experiences the frustrations and complications of artistic labor in his virtual studio. After digital creation, his works are rendered physically flat in a purposeful misuse of 3D modeling, coming to occupy an alternative mass and materiality in this augmented and mixed world. Like chasing Pokemon on their phones, viewers are invited to enter the process and performance that created these odd objects.

Performance Script:
Check out my new studio.
It’s a cool space.
I like working here.
I brought in my stuff and my tools.
Finally, I have enough room to make things.
And this is my new body.
My old body felt so uncomfortable and saggy.
Now I am strong.
And I am sexy.
Do you like my hair?
I dreamt about this rock the other night.
It was a beautiful rock like this one.
And it seemed sentient.
Kind of like Amazon Alexa.
You could ask it stuff and it would know the answer. It couldn’t speak though.

If I want to be a bad boy artist.
I gotta make something BIGGER. Like an alien hunter robot
in the Jurassic period.
A vicious predator,
sexy and deadly.

Why am I doing this? What is my art about?

Sometimes while I work I hear little voices in my head. They are whispers from some art critique trying to stop me.

Is this a prison?
I feel like a domesticated Ork.
a wild creature in captivity.
an immigrant from another world.
Why am I making work for the art world when I could be Riding a horse naked, swinging my axe in the battlefield. making art out there in the wilderness.
Like an Ork.
You may not know that,
but Orks were the first modernists. Look follows use
That kind of thing
Has been Ork wisdom for ages.

When I believe in myself and keep trying,
I eventually reach these moments of clarity and excitement, where everything fits into place.
Where I know that this is a fight worth fighting for.
Never fighting for a constructed ideal
but just for the fun of it.
Just because that’s what Orks do.
Who said that Orks can’t be romantic?

Theo Triantafyllidis (b.1988 Athens, Greece) received an MFA at Design Media Arts UCLA in 2016. Selected Solo Shows include: Pretzel Twist, The Breeder, Athens (2017); Obscene Creatures, Resilient Terrains Assembly Point, London, UK, 2017. Selected Group shows include: Hyper Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT, 2017; Unreal, NRW Forum, Düsseldorf, DE. 2017; International Topsellers – Human Product, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Wien, AT 2017; LA times 10, Architecture and Design Museum, LA, CA, 2017; After Belonging, Oslo Architecture Triennale, Oslo, NO. 2016; Game Art Festival, Hammer Museum, LA, CA, 2015.
Triantafyllidis currently has work on view in Still Human at the Rubell Family Collection Miami, FL through August 25, 2018 and will be included in Nature of Justice: A Visual Arts Response to the Birds organized by the Onassis Foundation, USA curated by Mari Spirito at St. Anne’s Warehouse, Brooklyn NY from May 2-13, 2018.