SPACORE, co-curated with Serena JV Elston
Co-Prosperity, Chicago, IL, 2023
www.spacore.skin
Project Statement
SPACORE is the lifestyle aesthetic of the moment. Borne of the intersection of work-from-home and pandemic horror, SPACORE is the blurring lines of relaxation and employment. It is the labor of repose. SPACORE is a critique of wellness capitalism. It explores the attempt to pacify the working class with the promotion of superficial “wellness.” This version of wellness co-opts the language of radical self-care and redefines it as access to upper-class amenities. Wellness culture derives its “authenticity” from appropriative aesthetics that steal from Eastern and Indigenous cultures. Wellness is a neoliberal project designed to locate suffering within the individual in order to repress political revolt. SPACORE situates wellness in the horror genre, where it belongs.
Featured Artists
Autumn Ahn, Guru Aman, Nour Ballout, ST Barry, Mack Baker, Phoebe Beckett Chingono, Dani Chë, Erica Dincalci, SAGE DYE, Serena JV Elston, Becs Epstein, FLEMING, Ben Gfell, Sky Goodman, King Green, Philipp Groth, Tali Halpern, Joe Harjo, Janet Loren Hill, Jeung Bok Holmquist, Tyler Hubby, Sun Lynn Hunter, Kelly R Johnston, Dylan Languell, Sungjae Lee, Yeji Lee, Rudolf Lingens, Erica Maria Littlejohn, Marne Lucas, Alejandro Macias, Allen Moore, Mikey Mosher, Vincent Phan, Mac Pierce, Ruby Que, Sandrine Schaefer, Corey Smith, Nikki Telegan, Val Thompson, Sabato Visconti, Tilcara Webb, Adrian Wong, Florence Woolley, Kelly Xi
Press
“Serenity, NOW," by Annette LePique, Chicago Reader
