Video and performance installation

Boys Club Project Space, Berlin

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An experiment in working alone.  

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This solo show presented meditations on processes of procrastination, motivational struggles and the aesthetics of making do. Using low cost materials sourced from Dillon's apartment and local discount stores, the body of work reflected on the awkwardness of relocating to a foreign country, exploring anxieties surrounding the pressure to establish new social circles, the melancholic echoes of failed romance, and pangs of homesickness.      

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In the ground floor of the gallery, a series of sculptures and video explored uncertain verticalities and states of being OK: A bright cluster of aluminium foil hands gesturing that it's 'A-OK' and 'Thumbs Up', a video loop of a yogic candle revolving in meditative bliss atop a toilet cistern, a mirror bearing toothpaste affirmations, a time piece sponge stack and a shower curtain emblazoned with the exhibition's willfully positive declaration: 'Things are going great in your absence.'

 

In the basement level, Dillon staged a performance for opening night called Wake up to Yourself. Audience members were invited to enter the basement space one at a time. They were asked to wear a bathrobe embroidered with, 'I'd rather be wearing a smile.' On entering the space the audience member was greeted by the artist dressed in an identical robe and asked if they would slap her across the face. If this request was refused, Dillon asked if they would allow her to slap them across the face. Participants were permitted to continue this exchange as long as they wished. 'Wake up to yourself' explored frameworks of permission and control within the context of live performance. The work was intended as a situation of potential violence and pain within the exhibition, rupturing the meditative tone of the sculpture and video works displayed in the gallery ground floor.