Transmission of the Persona: The Act of "Becoming" in Performance Art

media release: Sertraline Dolls • April 1–October 8, 2023 • Imprint Gallery

In her first solo museum exhibition, Chicago-based new media and performance artist Ava Wanbli brings her video game-based work Sertraline Dolls (2021–22) to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. On view in the Imprint Gallery April 1–October 8, 2023, the exhibition will invite visitor engagement with the work.

Sertraline Dolls is a first-person, single-player game merging multiple formats of the artist’s body. The work provides a meditation on self-production through sexual expression and consumption of the body. It also reflects on the complexities of what it means to be a trans woman in sex work.

Set against a neo-gothic background that is cyber-futuristic and psychedelic, viewers who have spent time in open-world games will find the space comforting and familiar. Viewers also become an active participant in the work by playing the game and encountering multiple representations of the artist’s body, each taken from 3D scans over a period of six years that include various poses, guises, and personas.

Admission to MMoCA’s galleries is always free.

A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF SERTRALINE DOLLS: Thursday, September 7, 2023 • 6–6:45 PM • Lecture Hall • Free Admission

Join us for a live performance by Chicago-based artist Ava Wanbli, whose video game-based work Sertraline Dolls is on view in the Imprint Gallery. Wanbli will perform on stage with a 3-D printed manifestation of her “old” body as a meditation on collapsing temporalities, reconnections of desires through sexual expression, and how our bodies are consumed through media. She utilizes the experience of being a trans sex worker within virtual spaces as a vehicle to communicate how modern formats of technology affect the development of the persona.

The artist would like visitors to be aware of the subject matter of the performance before deciding to attend. The performance has references to sex work and death, and includes loud noises, intense soundscapes, nudity, and penetrative acts.

TRANSMISSION OF THE PERSONA: THE ACT OF "BECOMING" IN PERFORMANCE ART: Artists Ava Wanbli and Ále Campos in Conversation, Friday, September 8, 2023 • 6–7 PM • Lecture Hall • Free Admission

Listen in on a conversation between Chicago-based artists and performers Ava Wanbli and Ále Campos, who will discuss how performance artists define and defy personal and societal expectations of gender and sexuality, and how they correlate to the representation and life experiences of trans and non-binary people.

Advance registration is required to attend these admission-free programs.