2001/2006-08
framing real life events as performances in the form of photographic diptychs and triptychs
large version individual images 40 x 52
small version individual images 5 x 7
This work utilizes Clark’s conceptual methodology of framing real life events as performance art, as well as her formal tendency to depict things in the binary and with repetition. These before and after self portraits capture a prolonged infirmary and remarkable recovery process. They as well expose the personal toll of toxic environmental contamination and the politics surrounding the diagnoses of Myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Environmental Illness/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. She explores these subjects further in her pieces Pretend We’re Dead, Performance With Toxic Tee Pee, Opus Externus Domicilium and BUNNY GIRL.
“…some of her most riveting early works… Poisoning/Phoenix features the artist as our gentle guide into the world of the abject discourse.”
—Jillian St. Jacques, Afterimage, the Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, 2017
“This dichotomy of a transient vs. corporeal existence is one of the themes woven throughout Clark’s body of work. Clark’s work explores the tension between the power of the female body, society’s efforts to control it and the betrayals of the mortal body when it exerts its own will.. [and]..what society fetishizes as sexy.”
—Peter Dobey, Hyperallergic 2011
“The artworks of Monet Clark are, essentially, documents of her life, both real and projected. Their effectiveness hinges on her relentless sincerity, and her willingness to admit her own complicity in the very systems and ideas that she critiques.”
–Peter Dobey, Hyperallergic, 2011
