Concept

Engagement is a way of capturing attention, a way of alluring and a way of enticing to possess ownership. We could implement this as a way of attracting an audience, being drawn into a system and in turn be captivated. Such methods can include smoke screens, masquerade and stings.

We can be engaged in political upheaval and in contrast engaged to be married. Either way if one shows the willingness to engage then they are seized, arrested and caught, through an innocent human desire to absorb and be engrossed.

What happens when this engagement is done in a malicious, unlawful and corrupted way? When does the real become hyper-real? Entrapment is the process of this transition to occupy whether through political, artistic or personal systems.

What is the ethical concern over this? Is the viewer guilty for being engrossed in a piece of work that is deemed vulgar or inappropriate; a guilty pleasure? Is the accused guilty until proven innocent? Is the artist wrongly committed for a self-indulgent expression? Does this polarity repel or assist the convicted?

International artists have been invited to submit work which explores a subversive engagement, use tactics and trickery to captivate and which contests rules and laws of a system. Aesthetically, artists works entices the audience, engages them in viewing and ultimately entrap them into the work. Will the viewer be engrossed, cheated or convicted?

Works featured include traditional art forms of photography, painting and sculpture but also the contemporary processes of interventions, installations and new media.

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Cindy Hinant



New York, NY, USA

‘Kendra’ 2014

mp3, 9:45 minutes

I am interested in representations of women in art and the media, particularly women artists who use their own body as a site to reject objectification, and media representations that seem to empower women while demeaning them; both demonstrate the difficulty women face in taking control of their own image. Kendra, 2014  is part my series called Sex Tapes which looks the production, distribution and reception of intimate documentation between couples which have been released with or without the permission of the women involved.  Kendra is an audio except from “Kendra Exposed,” a sex tape made by Kendra Wilkinson when she was eighteen years old with her high school boyfriend Justin Frye. It was released by Vivid Entertainment in 2010 without Wilkinson’s permission (despite an attempted lawsuit). Throughout “Kendra Exposed” Wilkinson expresses discomfort with the recording and repeatedly asks her boyfriend to stop the camera. Removing the visual element from the video allows you to consider the phenomena of celebrity sex tapes rather than being seduced by naked bodies on display.