Without Us, The System Fails

Vienna Art Week, House of Challenging Orders, 2022

Within this performative installation, LoCascio washed, preserved, and stretched pieces from a large mother SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, grown to 2.5 x 1.5 meters) -- a slimy, fermented, placenta-like biofilm created by generations of billions of bacterial and fungal collaborators.

The work addresses the repetition, necessary endurance, and (non)value of reproductive labor by employing the (traditionally) repetitive women’s work of textile creation and care, and the preservation of foodstuffs. The ethics of cross-species collaboration and the vital role of bacteria in our ecosystem are also raised through the employ of the “mother” SCOBY as material.

The artist raised this SCOBY, she decided when it slept and ate, and within the scope of this installation, will decide when it dies -- exploiting its aliveness and body to create value in the form of textiles which LoCascio will further use for her embroidery series.

As with reproductive labor, this work is demanding, performative, transient, and bio-degradable. The performance challenges hegemonic olfactory aesthetics with its smelly-ness -- this is the “dirty work”.