Video
2 mins 10 secs
2015
Personality Unlimited is adapted from a self improvement book of the same name. The book, written by Veronica Dengel and published in 1943, features a series of photographs of young women in domestic spaces demonstrating positions “to flatten that stomach” and aimed at “that hard-to-get-at fat”. These photographs are translated into a choreography performed to Solomon Burke’s Cry To Me.
Personality Unlimited Exhibition
Artscape Youngplace, 2015
curated by Karie Liao
A cross between a cabinet of curiosities and a thrift store, Personality Unlimited presents the collections of Alison S.M. Kobayashi’s personally owned and borrowed found objects along with her artistic interpretations of them. The artist’s collections include a diversity of treasures: a 1950s guide to exercises targeted at young women, a set of hand-made biographical books inscribed by a woman named Mrs.
Florence Hazel David Bland, discarded tapes from old answering machines, black and white photographs of rainbows, plastic bags, among other things. In response to these materials, Kobayashi’s interpretative works – an interactive projection, a choreographed dance routine, illustrations, photographs, and videos – address themes of loss and memory while infused with the artist’s idiosyncratic humour and penchant for play. Personality Unlimited is an exploration of collecting culture and personal mythologies.
