mad alchemist
migratory social performance + installation
2012-present
Mad Alchemist practices a catawhumpus form of alchemy.
Her current experiments are devoted to proving that the old adage "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right" is indeed false.
In a reverse operation, she is working at the bottom of the alloy barrel to transmute fool's gold {a.k.a. pyrite}.
Her hypothesis posits that if fool's gold can be shapeshifted then stripped to its naked core, it will expose a core seed of extreme power and force.
This seed's power can then be applied to the weaker wrong, forcing its mass to expand and become equal with the stronger one.
The properties of both wrongs have the ability to shapeshift intermittently in milliseconds, making this experiment particularly confounding.
Therefore Mad Alchemist understands the potential futility of this exercise.
Nevertheless she persists. . .
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Western alchemical processes can be traced back to Ancient Greece,
where philosophical assumptions supported the idea that material objects consisted of the same matter and differed only in the properties of shape, color, and weight.
To transmute one metal into another, it was necessary to strip away the original properties, reducing the object to its prime matter, and then to introduce the new properties in the form of a "seed" that would grow as moisture, warmth, and breath were applied.
The operation was equated to the redemptive processes of suffering, death, and rebirth. The objective was to create the philosopher's stone which would transmute metals, cure disease, and bring immortality.
[source: Wikipedia]