UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art
Las Vegas, Nevada
We believe everyone deserves access to art that challenges our understanding of the present and inspires us to create a future that makes space for us all.
MessageNéstor Pérez-Molière
Untitled (from the Warning: Choking Hazard series), 2020
Digital projection
Courtesy of the artist
The work of Néstor Pérez-Molière pivots around acts of confessional self-discovery. The artist uses photography, performance, and video to thoughtfully manifest his feelings of shame, dysmorphia, loneliness, and depression as well as the behaviors—such as compulsive comfort eating—that accompany them. In his notes for the Warning: Choking Hazard series he draws attention to the way the balloon is burdened by its own delicate and vulnerable bulk, connecting it to the predicament of a human body. “Bodies over the size limit can choke or suffocate on uninflated and broken balloons,” he writes. “Keep sweating balloons from your mouth. Discard broken balloons at once. Beware of overflowing. Adult supervision is required.” Other videos in the series show balloons being squeezed by a belt or rubbed mercilessly against one another like thighs in underwear until one of them explodes.
(DKS)