ECSTASY OF THE ANCESTOR

Ecstasy of the Ancestor is an exhibition of new work by emerging Melbourne artist Daniel R Marks. Across the exhibition, a collection of artefacts evokes the immaterial presence of “the ancestor”: the singularity of the body which has been broken down in the elevation from human to posthuman. Bodies pass through loops of tension and passage, and rebirth is found in states of decay; disintegration of physicality informing redistribution of self.

A garment-as-obituary hangs above a ringed effigy of conjoined mummified forms, stained with traces of movements and actions past. The effigy is a fragile and temporary sculpture and will be documented in a live performance work, archived through processes of flesh memory and surveillance. Such is the conceptual nature of Ecstasy of the Ancestor as a whole: slippage, loss and memory becoming cyclic channels for transformative resolution.