It’s easier to be told what to do than to think. Repetition is much easier than change.
Escaping Escapism is about not wanting to face reality or deal with the changes of adulthood that are forced upon us.
The action of looking at a painting is one of Hoicka’s favourite escapes. The viewer comes across a wall of her paintings with two windows and a locked fence. Inside these windows it’s as though one of the paintings has come to life. The room is a surreal jungle made of vinyl, rubber, cotton, fun fur… and paint.
Hoicka sits in the centre enacting whichever of eight escapes that the audience chooses for her from the switches of the outside wall: Read, Window, Eat, Dance, Ceiling, Beer, TV, Floor.
For the Physical escapes such as “Window”, she paints windows onto the wall, for “Ceiling” she fabricates a ladder using wood and ribbon, for “Floor” she digs sequins out of the ground using a spoon. For Reading, Eating, Dancing, Beer and TV she enacts the task and escapes mentally.
Hoicka is wearing a chroma key green screen suit – There’s a flat screen monitor amongst all the paintings on the outside wall with an image of whats currently going on in the space. On this screen she escapes by being keyed out. Either not showing up on the monitor or a ghost like image of her appears.
Escaping Escapism was created for the Power Plant’s Powerball: Quarter-Life Crisis (2012.)