Signe Pierce

Reflexxxions

24.04. - 15.06.2019

Opening - 24.04.2019, 5 - 9 pm

American artist Signe Pierce (* 1988, USA) describes herself as a reality artist: “I am pop and I am art. I am digital and I am physical. I am virtual and I am real”. “What is real?” is the central question that hovers throughout Pierce’s installations, photographs, performances and writings.

Throughout her work, Pierce has utilized her own life and body as a surface to be projected onto, both figuratively and literally. As a performer and self-described “reality artist”, Pierce presents a provocative, hyperreal version of herself, confronting expectations surrounding femininity, sexuality, and perception.

Pierce is at the forefront of a young generation of artists that reflects the current digital age. Her artistic material is the social and political reality as well as the rapid development of digital media and technology.

The short film American Reflexxx (dir. Alli Coates, 2015) documenting a social experiment that took place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is a heart wrenching technicolor spectacle that raises questions about gender stereotypes, mob mentality, and violence in America. Pierce is filmed donning a mirrored mask and neon blue mini dress as she struts down the Myrtle Beach, South Carolin boardwalk. During the course of her journey down the strip, her presence was met by an angry mob of onlookers whose savage reactions triggered an outright assault on Pierce. The angry mob sought to unmask her mirrored facade, leading to the ironic exchange in which they are faced with their own aggressive reflection.

With Reflexxxions, her first solo exhibition in Germany at the EIGEN + ART Lab in Berlin, Signe Pierce debuts a new installation and body of work which fuses light, digital projections, and self portraiture with reflective surfaces and blank canvases. Sound, image, light and text will be condensed into an immersive landscape. The visitors become part of her reality.

Curators: Marie Gerbaulet and Anika Meier
Photos: Eike Walkenhorst