Prize Every Time

Daily Maintenance, pigment print, 24" x 36"

I bought this piece from Trish Tillman's show at the Arlington Arts Center, which was called Prize Every Time. I went to hear her speak about the show one evening and felt like she was speaking directly to me! See below for a very good description of what these works represent.

In Prize Every Time, Trish Tillman uses video projection, photographs and object arrangements to explore the games and silent negotiations that occur beneath the surface of human communication. Behind the veneer of Tillman’s overtly saccharine & nostalgic imagery -- carnival games, squirt guns, plastic cartoon animals, colorful “personalized” pencils with engraved text, sugary fruit juice residue left at the bottoms of drinking glasses – are representations of incomplete conversations, labored interactions, and detrimental behavioral patterns. Some of the objects presented become characters engaging in futile power struggles, caught up in mutual misunderstandings and seeking reciprocity where there is none to be found. Others act as indexes of recurring exchanges, cataloguing instances of both harmony and dysfunction. With Prize Every Time, Tillman investigates the uphill struggle to understand and be understood, and the sometimes questionable value of the rewards offered for accomplishing this feat.

See her website for more info: www.trishtillman.com.