Sugar & Snails is a collaboration between Guta Galli and Aaron Wilder. Our collaboration started out as a photography project employing an analytical model to the daily performance of normative gender displays of appearance. The photographs depict the artists going through the motions of performing femininity and masculinity through sequential stillness. These figurative representations deconstruct gender norms and the way these norms relate to sex, race, identity and the idea of otherness. The original photographs were done in two sequences (one exploring masculine stereotypes and one exploring feminine stereotypes) where both artists went through the same actions. The photographs are displayed always in pairs matching both artists in a particular action. After creating the photographic project, Guta and Aaron created 2" x 2" stickers of each photograph and installed them in pairs without permission throughout the San Francisco Mint during the MFA Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Institute. Some pairs were easily removed without a trace by unknown individual(s), but due to the texture of some surfaces on which the stickers were placed, a significant amount of effort (and time) would need to be expended to fully remove these images from public view. The result is a very interesting residue of a performance of an unknown performer, potentially reacting to the content of our images, the unwelcome insertion of our images into the Mint, or both.
A highlights video about this project can be experienced on Vimeo.
