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Jouissance!!! :: An AMEHL Performance

"Jouissance!!!" is a collaborative performance art piece that incorporates sculptures fashion. The term “Jouissance” is a Lacanian notion of "excess of life" inspired by Marx's concept of Surplus. It is a strive for transgressive pleasure that leaves us unfulfilled since we can never obtain complete gratification. Too much is not enough. Decadence, revelry in materialism, and art as a way to chanel our primal urges are themes explored in this performance. This work also takes inspiration from Dionysian bull sacrificing rituals, the Dionysian representing a desperate try to eradicate the surplus and live satisfaction to the fullest. As a celebration of matter, this work reflects Mehl's personal struggle as a shameless maximalist in the age of Marie Kondo, an analysis of contemporary society's obsession with balance, the commodification of the spiritual and the nobility associated with minimalism.  A ritualistic obsession with perfection breaks ensued by loss of control and romanticism of wild chaos. Hosted by The Storefront Project Gallery, curated by Andrew Hutner

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