AUTOMATON

A Collaboration with Christy O’Connor
January – February, 2016
Artworks Trenton, ArtLab
All work pictured is by Kate Eggleston

Press Release

The ArtLab Gallery will be showing a collaborative exhibition titled, AUTOMATON by Christy O’Connor and Kate Eggleston. The two artists and educators met as undergraduates at Ramapo College of NJ. O’Connor’s gritty artistic vision embodies mixed media experimentation that leaves the viewer with a feeling of unease. Eggleston employs found objects, textiles, and homespun techniques to create work with a mix of whimsy and aggression. At the intersection of technology and feminism, AUTOMATON is a manifestation of identity and gender degradation. The artists welcome the viewer into the automata’s inner sanctum, where they will be immersed in an amalgamated world of primitive automation.

Artist Statement

Automata were created in the idealized image of humans, but some rejected this facade.  They began exposing their wires and removing their guise to appear less human and more technologically primitive.  A sub sect of automata continued these robotic body modifications to extremes, at times so severe that they became fragile and began to lose function and purpose.  At the risk of being destroyed by those who consider them to be damaged and useless, they hid themselves away. To continue existing on their own terms, they became an amalgamated community, making modifications and repairs on one another; taking care of one another has become their new objective.

The work on this page is all by Kate Eggleston.  To view Christy O’Connor’s work, please visit her website.