Feminist Center for Creative Work is pleased to present LYLEX 1.0, a new, three-venue exhibition by Philth Haus, a collective of 6 member-clients currently represented by ANDRA, curated by FCCW Programming Director, Mandy Harris Williams.
LYLEX 1.0 will open at Human Resources in Chinatown on June 4, 2022 before flushing and rhizomorphing to Navel (Downtown LA) and Feminist Center for Creative Work (Glendale).The installed work will be accompanied by programming at each location.
In advance of, and throughout the exhibition LYLEX will develop oyster mushrooms in sculptural encasements, fed with the blood of a person undergoing hormonal and dietary modulation therapies. Expounding on themes of exploitative globalization, wealth inequality, and new age therapies and their inherent privilege of certain bodily forms and functions over others, the modified mushrooms will be transformed into pills and powders, with branded jewelry and apparel available for sale throughout the exhibition and online.
By introducing the blood of a community into an edible “lifestyle” product, LYLEX 1.0 hopes to confront how globalization has allowed for the mass-distribution of exploitation at a distance by certain privileged bodies onto economically disenfranchised ones. These seemingly one-way systemic hierarchies of financial and social domination are repurposed by LYLEX.
Indeed, these systems of wealthy lifestyle health-food consumption are made into a means through which the under-privileged can contaminate, influence, and modify the socioeconomically enfranchised.
LYLEX introduces the blood of an individual undergoing hormonal and dietary modulation therapies via an intermediary bio-indicator species, the Oyster Mushroom, which retains much of the blood nutrients and endocrine compounds upon which the funguses are grown. This provides a means through which chemicals originally found in the anonymous body of a transgender person might enter into the bodies of the economically privileged with a penchant for new age therapies which provide enhanced appearance, psyche, and longevity.
These modified mushrooms are introduced via mobile, for use at-home, production cases, pills and powders. Jewelry and apparel featuring LYLEX branding, and a three-channel video advertisement accompany these items. Further glimpses into the mysterious world of LYLEX, product and/or persona, lie within an accompanying text published by FCCW, a haunting (fictional) documentation of the experiences of one such user and her lover/friend as they embark on a relationship with themselves and the unwieldy entity that is LYLEX.
About the Artist
PHILTH HAUS is an art collective of 6 members, or entities: ANDRA, SYLLA, LYLEX, COLY, ROCO, and PHILIP. This community was founded by ANDRA and now interacts as an ever- evolving system of member entities searching for a form outside the humanoid predominance. Materials used have included: algae, chlorophyll, fungi, slime mold, artificial intelligence, and tectonic sonics.
Shop Show Merch
Limited-edition art pieces that accompany the LYLEX 1.0 show are available for purchase, including a long sleeve t-shirt made in collaboration with and printed by Amber Ibarreche, sterling silver necklaces produced by Nomi Sladko, and a (fictional) text documentation of the experiences of one LYLEX user by PHILTH HAUS.