Beck+Col

Featured Artist: Beck+Col

Artist Statement

Through costume-based performance and video, we utilize a monstrous form to reflect the horror of humanity's actions. The destructive nature of the phantasmagorical figures are violent personifications embodying the parasitic core of our socioeconomic system--the over consumption and exploitation of the world's biodiversity through “opportunistic trans-species commodification of Life that is the logic of advanced capitalism.”1

On the surface, the monsters are inviting: bright colors, fuzzy textures and shiny exteriors evoke sentimentality for childhood. Through humor, our work is disarming and seductive. The playfulness of our monsters and the lightness of our materials contrasts the gore and brutality of the performances. We combine classical operatic structures and motifs with tropes from iconic horror films to illustrate the cruelty of Capital. We simultaneously engage in and subvert these cliches not to reify, but because we are inspired by “a concomitant aesthetic program: when a critique of [actual] horror produces horrific films.”2 It is through engaging in cruel behaviors and taking them to their most ridiculous extreme that we are able to expose the absurdity of white supremacy and the patriarchal system.

1. Braidotti, Rosi. The Posthuman. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2013. Print.
2-3. Steven, Mark. Splatter Capital: a Guide for Surviving the Horror Movie We Collectively Inhabit. Repeater, 2017. Print.

Artist Biography

Beck+Col are a Los Angeles based artist duo active since 2014. They create large scale installations and costumes using textiles as their primary medium. Through costume-based performance and video, they explore alternate universes populated with monsters.

Their work has been exhibited worldwide. They have performed at Human Resources LA, REDCAT and the Hammer Museum. Beck received her BA from UCLA in 2010, and received her MFA from CalArts in 2019. Collin received his BA from California State University Northridge in 2010 and his MFA from California State University Los Angeles in 2014. Collin is currently an adjunct professor at Victor Valley Community College. Beck has taught multiple sewing workshops and practicum at CalArts and participated in a panel at Otis College. They have been invited to host art education workshops and lectures with the Hammer Museum, the Craft Contemporary Museum, 18th Street Art Center and The Annenberg Community Beach House.