Tori Wrånes, Shapeshifter, 2021

Tori Wrånes is known for her ambitious and surreal performances involving sound, prosthetics and make-up, props, kinetic sculpture, architecture, and multiple choreographed performers. She explores myths and folklore through dreamlike narratives. The artist's photographs are often based on her past performances. Throughout her performances, Wrånes has developed a unique method of communication coined as “troll language.” Using sound to convey primal emotions and truths, the artist bypasses the structural hierarchies of language and rational thought. For Wrånes, the troll is a metaphor for the id and human fate alike; it represents our hidden truths. The result is a wide-ranging, experimental, and ritualistic practice that freely draws on ancient stories and contemporary struggles to speak to the human experience of past and present.

Shapeshifter is based on Wrånes's performance of the same name, which took place at Shulamit Nazarian's Venice space in 2016. Beginning inside the gallery, Wrånes began to sing into a microphone all the way down the multiple levels of the gallery building and through the exit. Once outside, Wrånes was met by another similarly costumed performer on a motorcycle. For approximately an hour, the two figures drove around Venice Beach—circling back and forth, to and from the gallery—as Wrånes continued to sing, with her voice amplified by a sound system inconspicuously integrated into her costume.

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Tori Wrånes b. 1978

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