Cyborg Hybrid Accessories
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Bag |
Bracelet |
Cell phone |
iPod Holder |
Laptop |
Mitts |
Shoes |
Cyborg Hybrid \'cy·borg 'hi·brid\ n
Hy-brid : anything derived from heterogeneous sources, or composed of elements
of different or incongruous kinds.
Cy-borg: cybernetic + organism, a person whose physical abilities are extended
beyond normal human limitations by machine technology
For KC Adams, the
intersection of organic technological and socio-cultural evolutions presents
a realm of speculative invention. With Cyborg Hybrids, she presents a wholly
different perspective of our possible future while holding a mirror to our collective
past.
In Cyborg Hybrids, Adams presents a cross cultural, as well as bio-technologic
ideal, an intriguing interplay of contemporary race politics and analytical
detachment. Her portraits are, at once beautiful, sensuous and powerful, compelling
and somewhat threatening (depending on your politics) visions of an indigenous
hybrid world. Theirs is an Indigeneity based on strength (power), unity, persistence
and survival.
These cyborgs obviously inhabit a much different reality than we’re used
to seeing in futurist theoretics and sci-fi narratives. Adams seeks to inhabit
the world of the trans-biological and of manufactured “idols” with
a radical indigeneity. All Adams’ models are of mixed Aboriginal and European
ancestry. In her words, “the subjects are Euro-Aboriginal artists who
are forward thinkers; plugged in with technology.”
Her use of theatrical
staging give her portraits a contemporary, celebrity feel that belies their
subversive and specific political edge. Her puns and double entendres, hand
beaded and chosen by her subjects, speak to a shared politic in a way that is
layered with cultural significance and poignancy.
And, Adams has gone
further and created a range of “cyborg hybrid accessories” to complement
her portraits and animate them. She employs the marketing strategies of “lifestyle
technology” so common today. She takes our current obsession with portable,
and personal technology (i-everything) and subverts it to her own deliciously
ironic ends.
Her choice of white, as an aesthetic as well as histori-cultural choice posits
a post-victim stance and articulates a clearly anti-colonial perspective to
the purposefully “cover girl” ( or guy) style of the photographs
and the hip-ness of the accessories. Here, she presents two contemporary phenomenon;
the hybridization (or “half-breed-ing”) of culture and our obsession
with technology and wraps them in a glitzy and beautiful package, but with a
sharp political and satiric edge.
Steve Loft, (text from http://www.stormspirits.ca/English/Cyborg/essay.html)