BURNING LIFE '05: NYLON PINKNEY'S JOURNEY TO WELLNESS

Another glimpse of Burning Life 2005-- context here.

It begins with a neon lit-sign that points you through a cavernous mouth, inviting you to squeeze past the maw, past teeth the size of ottomans, down a bloody gullet, past the heart and other bloody innards, until you've finally wound up in the darkest part of the body, where a seat and a salad fork and a handy instructional illustration on the wall is waiting for you. Cheerfully suggesting that you commit an unthinkable act of self-mutilation.

As an immersive experience, it's about as effective as many site installations I've walked through at the SF MOMA or the Whitney, but as Nylon explains it, her inspiration was drawn from this world. "I saw a huge demon statue in here," Nylon says simply, "I think by Starax, where you could go inside the mouth. But there was nothing in there. I was thinking it'd be cool if you could actually go inside and see internal organs and stuff." Her first attempt at this was too gruesome, a bit more serial killer than symbolic, "so I made it more surreal which worked out even better. All the textures on my Burning Life statue were done by me, even the drawing at the bottom, which I just kinda threw in there as a last-second thing." (Unsurprising, as Ms. Pinkney was last seen in New World Notes helping teach in-world life drawing.)

To her, the Journey to Wellness restates the indelible paradox, "You can't know yourself until you look inside, and when you do, can you handle it?"