SELECTIVE IDENTITY SERIES
THE POWER OF THE CLICK SERIES
GLAMOUR MACABRE
Triptych within "The Box" series
“The Box” are the screens we interact with, the media we watch, the canvases we paint, the virtual and real spaces that we inhabit.
These boxes are presented in grayscale to represent a perpetual voyage between extremes, in a society of perpetual “update,” or (re)definition. While in an art residency in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lala Drona stayed in an art colony, which was formerly a 19th century epidemic hospital. This place inspired her to research how epidemics spread, both in the real world and online. Rather than looking at how epidemics cause destruction, this work focuses on how an epidemic brings life.
THE VOID SERIES
(2018-2019)
Throughout my life, I have filled out forms regarding sex, gender, sexuality, financial/criminal background. As a Venezuelan-American, left-breast reconstructed woman, it is never easy to fill in boxes. After piles of paperwork, I began feeling alienated, and imposed on. I was defined by definitions that were not mine. In order to rectify the situation, I took the forms and imposed my body on them, in turn appropriating and re-humanising them.
(2018)
(2015-2017)
Seventeen years after her unilateral breast agenesis surgeries, it is now time to remove the breast implant. The artist has decided not to replace the implant after removal. These paintings are inspired by the emotions felt during this period of time. Rage and curiosity are attached act of revealing a void that had been covered for 17 years. Lala Drona peels back the grayscale that previously defined her paintings, and journeys into the void underneath.
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Explores the themes of identity, the beauty/monster within symmetry, and transitions.
THE BOX SERIES
ANTHROPOLOGY
DECENTRALIZED, CONNECTED
Lala Drona represents the spaces that we inhabit online in the form of The Box, and expresses their transient nature in grayscale. These gradated boxes blur the lines between the virtual and the real, just as virtual communication blurs the boundaries within relationships and intimacy.
Inspired by human relationships from the virtual to the real, the triptych “Decentralized, Connected.” examines human relationships that originate online. The triptych begins at our first encounters, then travels through our growing friendships, and finally demonstrates that we can change the world simply by coming together.
(2020 - 2021 )
(2018)
Can a click on a virtual body invite transgressions on real body? Do we exploit ourselves in exchange for clicks, and does that exploitation manifest differently across age/race/sex/gender? In this series, Lala Drona looks into the exhibitionist/voyeuristic dichotomy which makes up the landscape of the Internet. She links the act of clicking with the act of touching, and inquires about the implications regarding consent. Are we instilling bad habits when it comes to how we treat women’s bodies online, and could these habits have real life consequences?
A mouse click on a virtual body can be an act of affirmation, an act of curiosity, or an act of violence. However, above all, a click today represents an exchange. One sees this in our tendency to value ourselves and content through our number of “likes,” “friends,” and “followers.” Many girls feel pressured to sexualise themselves online in order to receive this currency, while other demographics do not. In a world where the virtual overlaps with the real, it is vital that we become more conscious of the impact of this “click value system,” and of our contribution to it.
(2018)