Trapdoor, 2022

resin, wood, HD video, flatscreen monitor, acrylic paint bricks, PVC pipe, and speakers

Another Dimension: Digital Art in Memphis

featuring choreography and performance by BREAKTIME: Jonathan Matthews-Guzman (they/them) and Holly Sass (they/them)

"Resembling a kind of bunker, Trapdoor examines what we protect and keep, and what we hide and discard. In essence, what do we need to survive? The enigmatic work blurs the lines between sculpture, painting, performance, and video art. A trapdoor molded from a utility manhole cover in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art reveals a glittering, subterranean space. The video features a choreographed dance from the performance duo BREAKTTIME and was filmed in a fountain, a site of relaxation and wish-fulfillment. Instead of the bleak, end of times we would expect in a bunker, we also find joy and life.

The work explores gestures- from moving hands and feed to painterly brushstrokes on the surface of the bunker - as a way of implying the body without fully representing it. Much of Lapossy's experimentations with the digital have been decidedly low-tech, using a free app to animate their paintings. Here, the multifaceted, translucent bunker lid manually distorts the video, acting more like a lens rather than a cover. "

-Patricia Lee Daigle, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Trapdoor, 2019

Shady Swans Residency, Atlanta, GA

Curatorial exploration between Coorain Devin and Robert Chamberlin.

July 2019

Trapdoor seeks to examine the depth of love needed to protect. Through a queer experience, we create and choose our families and grapple with the safety of ourselves and those we have chosen. When does our desire to protect not serve us or those we are trying to protect? Who or what is protected within this bunker?

COE LAPOSSY

COE LAPOSSY