Warrnambool | A City for Living

CARRION ORIGINS

9 Oct 2021 - 3 Apr 2022
Justin Shoulder, Carrion. Photographed by Alex Davies, edited by Tristan Jalleh 2019. Special thanks to The Myer Foundation, Readymade Studios, Performance Space
Justin Shoulder, Carrion. Photographed by Alex Davies, edited by Tristan Jalleh 2019. Special thanks to The Myer Foundation, Readymade Studios, Performance Space

Never quite human, only ever Frankenstein: a ghost of the west, a virus, a trickster, or a prehistoric bird, Carrion is an amorphous being. Drawing on queered Filipinx ancestral mythologies, this hybrid human/animal/cyborg exists in a speculative future archaeological site conceived by the artist to question the current role of the human at a time of unprecedented destruction of nature.   

Initially designed and performed for the stage, Carrion is an on-going body of work which deftly shifts between gallery, nightclub, theatre and cinema contexts. For this iteration, Shoulder creates an immersive installation akin to a natural history museum to explore the paradox of encasing, conserving and prizing an imagined creature from the devastated future.