TRASHBOT is a new video work of contemporary mythology that will make its world premiere virtually as part of FringeArts. From September 12 – October 3, 2020, TRASHBOT will be available to view anytime, for free, on Vimeo.
TRASHBOT shares the journey to a cyborg deity via randomly accessed memories, #trash, and a techno-spiritual shed-hunting. Created by a new collaborative trio consisting of visual artist Aysha Hamouda, performer and writer Sarah Finn and theatre artist and sound designer Garvis-Giovanni Deval, this is their first Philadelphia Fringe.
TRASHBOT is seen from the eye of The Researcher, who, determined to uncover the truth behind a local lore, sets out to trace, map, and record her origins and the collective history she carries within her. As the search deepens, The Researcher’s own histories begin to emerge and mutate, spiraling both hunter and hunted into unchartered wilderness.
“TRASHBOT is a collective dig into memory storage, obsolescence and the algorithms of our cross-temporal bodies,” said co-creator Sarah Finn, “from a trio of emerging visual and performance artists who share a love of neon and a paranoia of progress. With this video work, we seek to imagine personal and technological pollution as shared seeds to a collective transcendence.”
For more information, email Sarah Finn at s.kt.finn@gmail.com and or visit Instagram @trashbotofficial. Visit the Fringe Arts page for TRASHBOT here to view TRASHBOT anytime from September 12-October 3 on Vimeo.
ABOUT ARTIST BIOS:
Aysha Hamouda investigates collective dissociation through installation and multimedia based works. Her most recent series, Behind the Screen actualizes the virtual in order to examine the threading of information networks within the Post-Fact era. Through the conceptualization of a world on the other side of the screen, Hamouda reflects upon illusionary structures and what makes them real. She is part of Wavelength Reset, an international platform and traveling exhibition based in Shanghai, China, where her latest works have been exhibited at Times Art Museum in Beijing and Artron Museum in Shenzhen. Hamouda’s installation Each Body — A Vertiginous house was selected for the 2019 Spring Break Art Show, Fact and Fiction, in New York. She received her MFA degree in Studio Arts at Syracuse University.
Sarah Finn is a physical theater maker and performer. Her work has been seen internationally at the 2019 Prague Fringe Festival and the Ponderosa Tanzland Festival in Stolzenhagen, Germany; as well as various venues in New York including The Tank, The Hudson Guild Theater, Cloud City, and Movement Research. In 2019, she was a resident artist at the Barn Arts Collective and The Cannery. Her created work is highly physical, collaborative and interdisciplinary, with elements of clown, absurd dialogue and collaged media. In 2018, she was shortlisted for The Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers for her play, In the woods where the men work. She trained at Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France and got her BA from Sarah Lawrence College.
Garvis-Giovanni DeVal is an interdisciplinary artist who creates, directs, and designs performance-based work. His light, sound, and multimedia designs have exhibited at La MaMa’s Puppet Festival, The Tank, Single Carrot Theatre, and The Hear Her Call Women’s Theatre Festival. His favorite directing projects are Reasons for Return at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre’s play incubator, METLab, and The Fun Company’sAmazing Interactive Adventure II, a metatheatrical children’s theatre production. Giovanni was the lead collaborator and producer of Crab Over Turkey, a devised sketch show in partnership with The Baltimore Improv Group and Temple of Improv. Giovanni studied Theatre and Psychology at Hood College and holds an MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College.
FringeArts is Philadelphia’s home for contemporary performance, presenting progressive, world-class art that expands the imagination and boldly defies expectations. Each September, the organization presents the annual Fringe Festival, a 3-week celebration that fills the city’s neighborhoods with more than 1,000 curated and independently produced performances. This year, Philly Fringe is virtual.
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