In Alien ate d Rhy thm* Hiba Ali and Jonathan Chacón disrupt the traditional white-wall gallery with the color orange, bubbles, a train set, and foam tiles.
Ali, in her video Abra (2018), is in conversation with Amazon’s customer-obsessed mascot, Peccy. Their discussion about working-class labor, surveillance, and bubbles (economic, social and soap filled), literally paints the space orange. She contends that orange is the contemporary color of labor and danger, it is racialized and classed.
Chacón’s installation, I shit in my tub, I piss in my sink, I miss my mother (2018), is a text piece made of puzzle foam tiles embedded with objects, that span the gallery floor. The text is addressed to his mother and the character, “Mark/Marc.” Both the text and objects, serve as a frame for Chacón to discuss his interest in collage, emotional instability, and world building.
Both Ali and Chacón question the circumstance of their surroundings. Through their experiences, a new space has been created. Upon entering Alien ate d Ry thm, we as viewers must ask: How do queer people of color, repetitively move through environments designed to work against them?
