Trigger/Glimmer/
Something else
Emily BurkheadOPENING NOVEMBER 15, 2024
Poster Design by Bella Cacciato
Trigger/Glimmer/Something Else is an immersive installation that asks questions about the influence of 90s-00s consumerist culture on my experience of the world as a queer, neurodivergent (ND) woman born in 1998. What does it mean to find authenticity in artificial objects? How do I reckon with my reliance on overplasticization? I use loud neon colors alongside textures like faux fur, squishy plush domes, and bumpy plastic mounds to induce feelings of overstimulation I experience as an ND person. This in combination with readymades such as beanie babies, McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys, old CDs, and plastic school supplies recall my childhood and reiterate their significance as precious dopamine-inducers while coming of age.
I use 3D filament to doodle as a means of journaling sensory triggers and glimmers, similar to a young girl’s journal. (A trigger is environmental information that induces an unpleasant sensation, like “wet socks” or “contemporary Christian music.” A glimmer is the opposite: a simple twinkle of joy that brings relief or calm such as “homemade apple pie” or “quiet snowfalls.”) This handmade style interrogates amateurism as means of ND and queer expression. Queer and ND aesthetics are seen as childish, garish, and cheap. These identities embrace the unconventional, steadfast in their commitment to unfiltered actualization. Furthermore, queer and ND expressions extend beyond the material. Sexuality and disability are embodied experiences; they cannot be separated easily from implicative materials like lycra, vinyl, faux fur, and plastic. I embrace juvenile aesthetics to reclaim my childhood feelings of difference.
The artistic decision to use an overwhelming amount of pink highlights a performative femininity I found myself fascinated with while growing up. I longed to be as “current” as my female peers but always felt outdated or behind in my self-expression. I now want to reclaim the pink, transforming it into something more empowering than a gendered cliché. I use exciting materials to mitigate the childhood pain and isolation. Further, as a heteronormative-presenting woman, this campy aesthetic soils many gendered expectations; the composition of hot pink faux fur, neon-colored vinyl, and glittery paper allude to drag aesthetics of costuming and makeup. In this way, my neurodivergence and queerness converse with one another; the socially alienated part of myself is fascinated with hyperfeminization while my genderqueerness distances this femininity as gender performance.
Through this work, I draw on artists such as Mika Rottenberg, Bonnie Lucas, and Diana Cooper to continue the conversation of using culturally implicative materials as bodily enlightenment. I aim to develop this dialogue from a Generation Z perspective, highlighting how kitsch emerges and permeates culture for children growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s. The installation’s style and chosen readymades originate from a time of heightened consumerism erupted by television and mass media. While other generations have experienced similar popular trends of materialism, the work embraces the unique experience of finding self through artificiality. In short, Trigger/Glimmer/Something Else is the story of the othered Gen Z girl, now grown but still reckoning with her plastic childhood.
ARTIST BIO
Emily (she/they) is from Memphis, Tennessee where she received her B.A. in Urban Studies with a minor in Film/Media Studies from Rhodes College. During her undergraduate career, Emily worked as a creative projects fellow, where she produced and directed two short documentaries featured in the Indie Memphis Film Festival. They recently obtained their MFA in Studio Art from Michigan State University, where they were awarded the Master of Fine Art's Prize for their thesis exhibition, Trigger/Glimmer/Something Else.
The artistic decision to use an overwhelming amount of pink highlights a performative femininity I found myself fascinated with while growing up. I longed to be as “current” as my female peers but always felt outdated or behind in my self-expression. I now want to reclaim the pink, transforming it into something more empowering than a gendered cliché. I use exciting materials to mitigate the childhood pain and isolation. Further, as a heteronormative-presenting woman, this campy aesthetic soils many gendered expectations; the composition of hot pink faux fur, neon-colored vinyl, and glittery paper allude to drag aesthetics of costuming and makeup. In this way, my neurodivergence and queerness converse with one another; the socially alienated part of myself is fascinated with hyperfeminization while my genderqueerness distances this femininity as gender performance.
Through this work, I draw on artists such as Mika Rottenberg, Bonnie Lucas, and Diana Cooper to continue the conversation of using culturally implicative materials as bodily enlightenment. I aim to develop this dialogue from a Generation Z perspective, highlighting how kitsch emerges and permeates culture for children growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s. The installation’s style and chosen readymades originate from a time of heightened consumerism erupted by television and mass media. While other generations have experienced similar popular trends of materialism, the work embraces the unique experience of finding self through artificiality. In short, Trigger/Glimmer/Something Else is the story of the othered Gen Z girl, now grown but still reckoning with her plastic childhood.
ARTIST BIO
Emily (she/they) is from Memphis, Tennessee where she received her B.A. in Urban Studies with a minor in Film/Media Studies from Rhodes College. During her undergraduate career, Emily worked as a creative projects fellow, where she produced and directed two short documentaries featured in the Indie Memphis Film Festival. They recently obtained their MFA in Studio Art from Michigan State University, where they were awarded the Master of Fine Art's Prize for their thesis exhibition, Trigger/Glimmer/Something Else.
