2012
Body Code is an art project where the artist’s latex suit contains printed QR codes that the public can scan with their smartphones. The QR codes on the suit redirect the viewer to the Body Code website where they can see data found on the web about the body.
Body Code responds to our relationship with data in the age of the internet. With the abundance of information available, we often prioritize scanning for information over looking into the details. The word “scan” used to define an action related to our physical body, but now it is apart of our digital vocabulary, describing our interactions with the Internet. This performance reflects on this phenomenon by showing our obsession with data, this often leads to a loss of the physical body. By encouraging the public to scan Trenda’s latex suit, the work comments on how the flesh body is disappearing due to our virtual obsession of information.
For more than a decade, the Body Code project has remained a dynamic and continuously evolving performance piece, adapting to shifts in the ever-changing Internet. The intention is to contemplate how, in the era of abundant online data, we can reestablish a meaningful connection with our own bodies and the world around us. Recently, the artist employs ChatGPT to engage in a dialogue with the AI program, delving into inquiries regarding the human body and the impact of artificial intelligence on it. Can AI be a reliable source of information about the body, or does it possess the potential to propagate falsehoods, at times resembling a mere tape recorder parroting inaccurate data?
Body Code premiered at the Scope Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland and has been performed at various locations and events, such as the A+D Museum, Wynwood Art Fair, Zero1 Biennial, Perform Chinatown with Charlie James Gallery, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Art Center Nabi in South Korea, Creative Tech Week in New York, Women in Steam, LA Mobile Arts Festival, Context Art Fair, Art Miami, Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art & Human Perception, and during the 2023 ARS Electronica. For a full list of exhibitions, please see the about section.
2021
Un/Seen is a live performance on a social VR immersive web domain. It is built on the Immers.Space webXR platform. The public can login and interact with Tiffany Trenda in real time while she is broadcasting live from her studio. During the performance, the artist reacts to guest conversations, emojis, and chats. Guests can select from a group of custom avatars to embody in the VR space. They can keep those avatars to use on Mozilla Hubs or Immers.Space. The work is a hybrid of holographic, physical, and animation.
With new advancements in immersive technologies, we are experiencing alternate realties. This creates a detachment from our physical world, a disembodiment. That is, we are physically existing in one space while simultaneously in a virtual one. This leads us to dissociate from our bodies because we shift between the simulation and our reality. Furthermore, our presence is mediated and transported into another space that doesn't actually exist. We are in essence, seen and unseen.
In addition, these new technologies also blur the role of the user and creator by allowing both parties to change the experience. That is, the spectator is no longer passive but a collaborator in shaping the experience. Also, all parties are represented as avatars and further creates ambiguity. This leads to questions of identity. This shows the current societal atmosphere of uncertainty about our future, where traditional hierarchies and roles may no longer be relevant.
Un/Seen is a collaboration with artist Tiffany Trenda, dulce303, and composer Joseph Bishara. It was a commissioned artwork from DIVERSEartLA for the 2021 edition of LA Art Show, curated by Marisa Caichiolo.
2015
Ubiquitous States is a bio-feedback performance by new media performance artist Tiffany Trenda, 3D Systems, and designer Janne Kyttanen. It highlights the future of wearable design with a 3D printed dress that has an embedded computer screen.
During the performance, the artist places as sensor on the participants wrist, allowing the screen to display the heartbeats of Trenda and the public/participant. The sensor also enables both parties to listen and potentially match their rhythms.
This performance explores the impact of 3D printing, animation, and sensor-based systems on our lives, questioning the authenticity of our behaviors. It addresses how we live in both the physical and simulated worlds simultaneously, making it challenging for us to fully engage in the present. The piece premiered at Context Art Miami and was performed at The Broad Art Museum and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.
2010
Tiffany Trenda’s live performance, “Specular” explored the archetypes of narcissism in mediated culture, while floating in an immersive installation. The artist was inspired by Butoh, in using movements that reacted to the landscape. Her dual faces and the crystal-like plane that she stands on represented our mediated societal culture. Finally, the vibrant sky and silk reds, play upon beauty and sensuality.
Specular premiered Trenda’s solo exhibition at Frank Pictures Gallery at Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica. It was later performed at Filter 4 Art Space (Licht Feld Gallery) in Basel Switzerland.
2013
Artist, Tiffany Trenda created a suit with thirty-eight cell phone screens that revealed images of her body, representing selfies. The images on these devices could change either by touch or from the proximity sensors found on the suit.
The performance was inspired by Valie Export's 1968 piece, Tap and Touch Cinéma, which commented on the male gaze in cinematic history and how it objectified woman. While Value Export used a cardboard box, Trenda opted to use cell phone screens to show a modern-day version of the intimate experience. In Trenda’s work, the public were invited to touch either her body or a screen. However, the cell phones became the preferred choice.
This performance project commented on the fetishization of the female body in relation to social media and smartphones. While Value Export focused on than the male gaze of cinema, Trenda’s work reflected how women have shifted control from the traditional male gaze to female power, and the female body is both the subject and object of desire. This transfers the power structures through representation.
Proximity Cinéma premiered during the 55th Annual Venice Biennale and performed at Brand Library and Art Center, Scope Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland; Boulder Contemporary Art Museum, Context Art Miami, Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, LACE, Laboratorio, Art Center Nabi in South Korea, and Spring Break Art Fair in Los Angeles. See the about page for a full list.
2010
Urban Devotion shows the relationship between humans and screen technologies, emphasizing our culture's obsession with creating more human-like experiences. This project shows our devotion to these technologies as companions.
This live performance features the artist wearing a white bodysuit with an LCD screen on her face. The screen displays an animated version of their face that reacts to the public.
Urban Devotion is is an extension of Face Me and contributors to the project include Maxim Safioulline, Krisztina Matyi, Qiuming Li, and Pete Hawkes.
Urban Devotion premiered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA), Photo Los Angeles, LACE, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (LACDA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art's Benefit at GUESS? Clothing Store in Santa Monica.
2010
This is an interactive performance using a live image of the audience that is played on a screen found on the artist’s face. The audience has the ability to see them selves interact with the performer while a moving graphic of growing plants outlines the screen. There is a video projection projecting onto the body of the artist and the wall found behind her.
The performance entails the audience and performer trying to connect with each other. Together, the viewer and artist move their hands together. It appears choreographed but the performance is based on pure connectivity.
Collaboration with VJ Victor Solomon of Los Angeles Art Collective and sound design by Joseph Bishara.
Urban Devotion premiered at the Perform Now Festival with Francois Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles, California.
2012
Religious Mantis is a twelve-minute live interactive theatrical dance performance that uses video projections onto a garment, which changes depending on the dancer's movements. The performance depicts three female characters from Dante Alighieri's Inferno: Francesca, Harpy, and Cleopatra.
Using a Kinect, Trenda, metamorphoses into these characters throughout the performance. The first part of the performance portrays Francesca, the most debated “eroina dell’amore ideale”, the second part portrays Harpy, and the final part portrays Cleopatra.
This was part of the exhibition, "Women in Hell: Francesca da Rimini & Friends Between Sin, Virtue, and Heroism" at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles.This was a collaborative work of art with Alessandro Marianantoni, adjacent professor at UCLA Film. The music was created by Joseph Bishara and the garment was constructed by Marina Tia. Light design was by Maarten Cornelis and additional graphics were provided by Kevin Finch.
2010
FaceME is a collaborative effort of international artists and designers including Maxim Safioulline (Russia), Krisztina Matyi (Hungary), Qiuming Li (China), and Tiffany Trenda (USA)
faceME is an interactive performance piece that poses the question: how do people see themselves when they communicate through technology? Do they become machines themselves?
This group of artists created a red body suit with a touch screen that played an image of an animated version of the performer’s face. During the performance, the artist touched the screen allowing the face to change expressions. The performer had movements that replicated a robot, making the viewer question weather or not the performer is a real person or a man made machine.
This was performed at the 2010 Shanghai China World Expo (World's Fair) at the UK Pavilion by Heatherwick Studio.
2009
"Entropy" is a live performance in which an artist stands inside a 9 ft. plexi-glass box with 24 live monarch butterflies, wearing a moss-adorned dress with 3 embedded video screens connected to cameras on their hands and chest. The performance critiques our cultural obsession with defining and organizing the world through containment and surveillance, ultimately leading to a breakdown in the natural state of life, as life cannot exist in a controlled state.
Entropy premiered at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and was later performed at the Malibu Annual Contemporary Art Fair, Digital Art LA for the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Month of Photography Los Angeles.
2009
"Reproduction of Reflection" was a sponsored performance for the 2009 Photo LA Fair at Barker Hanger. The artist wore a screen on their head that displayed the face of the public, and the artist copied the movements of the person whose face was on the screen. This interactive use of technology created a hybrid world that merged the viewer's face and movements with the artist's performance.
"During the performance, the viewer engages by looking into the lens of the camera. They see an image of themselves through an LCD screen placed inside a box on the top of the artist’s head. The artist copies the movements of the viewer. Their face is then transmigrated into a hybrid world which becomes half human / half machine, half real / half unreal. A new entity is created and we can wonder whether it is an abstract picture of the viewer’s psyche, or a human-robot having borrowed the viewer’s face? Is it a living photograph or a human performance?" - Frank Navarro.
Production team: Skratch's Garage (for the painting on camera), Julian George William Brummitt (for installation) and Joseph Bishara (for the amazing sound design).
2008
"Council of Nicaea" is a mixed media sculpture and installation created by artist Launa Bacon. For the opening day, Tiffany Trenda performed inside the installation. The performance was documented through photography provided by Beth Dubber.
2008
Tiffany Trenda reenacts Madonna's Open Your Heart video with projected clips as background while performing the same dance moves. Her performance ends with simulated gunshots, and the artist falls to the ground with blood on her body, spending the rest of the exhibition's opening reception lying on the gallery floor. Trenda highlights society's fascination with celebrities as a manifestation of a morbid interest in death and a fear of the fragility of the human body.
2007
Hopelessly Unconscious premiered at the Korean Cultural Center Theatre for Tarfest 2007, were, Trenda, created an immersive digital environment. This installation featured a circular screen displaying a time-lapse image of an ocean, with a corresponding change in sound from organic to inorganic tones. As the artist touched the circular screen, the image responded and synchronized with a larger screen to the left. Additionally, an LCD screen was placed upon the eyes of the artist that displayed an image of her lips opening and closing, thus commenting on the consumption of our environment.
Humans have a tendency to consume without considering the consequences, leading to devastating impacts on the environment. We may be unconscious of the effects of our actions and the need for change, even though we are conscious of what we see. This unsustainable behavior threatens the ability of future generations to sustain themselves on this planet.
Sound design was provided by Joseph Bishara.
2005
The Condemned Opera aimed to blend ballet and utility to establish a new dialogue between them. The installation included a light box displaying a graphic of a utility elevator and a chandelier hung inside a plexi-glass box to spark a reaction or movement within this contrast. Although the artist's costume was inspired by theatrical ballet, the movements during the performance were repetitive, resembling elevator motions.
The Condemned Opera was first performed at the 2005 Irrational Exhibitions at Track 16 Bergamot Station, and later won the Artist of the Year prize at the London International Creative Competition Awards (LICC).
The sound design was provided by Joseph Bishara.
2005
Written Dream is a video installation performance where the artist, covered in white paint and wearing a foam, plastic, and light dress, concealed her identity with a lace mask and white rubber wig. During the performance, she wrote a stream of consciousness, incorporating the audience's reactions and interactions.
Written Dream premiered at Fine Art Resources (FAR) show in Los Angeles, California. It was also performed at the Pool Trade Show in Silver Lake and at the Sea of Dreams at the Los Angeles Theater.
(The last image shows an installation by Launa Bacon.)
2005
The audience viewed this performance in a small, dark room with a projected image displayed on an antique book. The live performance was captured in another location, and during the performance, Trenda pulled a white apple out of a birdcage, took a bite, and spat out red feathers. The performance highlighted the displacement of the female body through historical adaptations mediated by technology.
Sound design was provided by Joeseph Bishara
I Can’t Predict the Future of the Past I Never Lived premiered at the 2005 Photo San Francisco Fair for Brown Bag Contemporary.
2004
The installation incorporated foam, plastic, lights, a hair razor, and video projection. In the performance, a character (played by Blayne) shaved the artist's hair. The artist was later after suspended in a climbing harness inside a plastic sphere, ten feet above the ground.
The performance was an autobiographical work exploring the power dynamics of sexual trauma and its aftermath.
Sound design was provided by Joseph Bishara. The other performer was played by Blayne.
Plastic Rape was performed in 2004 at Gallery 4016 in Los Angeles, California.
2004
Tiffany Trenda's installation incorporated laminated newspaper clippings of the Iraq war from prominent newspapers such as the New York Times, LA Times, and Washington Post. The clippings were utilized as wallpaper and floor covering within the installation. Also, it featured a vanity with a rear projection in the place of a mirror.
As part of the installation, Tiffany Trenda pre-recorded herself drawing on her body and memorized the movements. This footage was rear-projected to create the illusion of a mirror within the performance space. Towards the end of the performance, she drew a line from her mouth down to her lower body as a concluding gesture.
Raw War was a commentary on the greed and vanity motivating the Iraq war. The installation's rear projection aimed to demonstrate the illusion and false justification behind the weapons of mass destruction narrative. The incorporation of newspaper clippings throughout the floor and walls emphasized how the media helped create a misleading foundation for the war, fueled by profit from oil.
RAW WAR was performed at the 2004 Hanger 1018 Cannibal Flower event in Los Angeles, California.
2004
"Stressed dessertS" was a 2005 performance piece in which Tiffany Trenda wore a gas mask while a video projection displayed x-rays of her body. The audience could hear her breathing through headphones connected to a microphone inside a glass beaker. Throughout the performance, Trenda wrote backwards on a glass surface, reflecting on themes of confinement and feeling like a specimen on display. She also noted the audience's reactions.
he concept behind the work explores the objectification of the mediated female body and draws parallels with the treatment of specimens. It aims to shed light on how women's bodies are often displayed and treated as objects for public consumption.
"Stressed dessertS" was performed at Soho Gallery in Studio City for the event, Artist Bound.
2001
Tiffany Trenda's first performance involved a wearable and utilized found footage of the female body captured using a micro-lens. The footage was heavily processed in post-production, resulting in an abstract and unrecognizable form. The performance incorporated these video clips displayed on a television monitor, with sound played through wearable speakers.
Trenda's performance aimed to critique the cultural obsession with video and photography manipulation that emphasizes post-production trends over explorative documentation of the human image. The performance highlighted the possibility that the manipulation and idealization of the human form may lead to its annihilation.
“Annihilation of Nexus” was performed at Art Center College of Design, Undergraduate Gallery, Pasadena, California.
2002
Artist Tiffany Trenda shucked 1,000 oysters to create the walls of the installation. Then she pre-recorded a video image of her face that was later played on a screen that the artist held during the performance. The audience at first glance perceived the screen as a window until Trenda lifted the screen above her head.
The work comments on how the beautification of the female body through media creates a disconnection.
2002 Art Center College of Design, Undergraduate Gallery, Pasadena, CA