ESTROWORLD-NOW: THE QUARANTINE EDITION (2021)

Mary Maggic

Mary Maggic operates at the intersection of capitalism, bio-hacking, and body and gender politics. In this installation, they show a world that remains invisible to the naked eye: that of the toxins in the many lifestyle products that are now omnipresent in our consumer-oriented, material culture. These substances are found in cleaning products, utensils, and beauty products. Ironically, it is society’s focus on cleanliness, purity, and perfection that is causing the pollution of our environment and our bodies and the total plasticization of our planet. Estroworld is a fictional corporate conglomerate of petrochemical, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries created by Mary Maggic. In thise interactive installation Estroworld Now: The Quarantine Edition (2021), Estroworld’s advertising and products flood various spaces of a house where Mary Maggic stayed during the pandemic. It has now been scientifically proven that the increasing amount of chemicals in our living environment and the products we use daily also changes our hormone balance. These chemical substances contribute to the increase of feminine characteristics and features in men and vice versa. Should we see chemical pollution as a result of our consumerism? Is uncontrolled capitalism a perverse ally in the fight against heteronormativity?

Mary Maggic

― Kunstenaar

Mary Maggic (b. 1991, Los Angeles) is a nonbinary Chinese-American artist and researcher working within the fuzzy intersections of body and gender politics and capitalist ecological alienations. Based in Vienna since 2017, Maggic frequently uses biohacking as a xeno-feminist practice of care that serves to demystify invisible lines of molecular biopower. After completing their Masters at MIT Media Lab (Design Fiction), their project “Open Source Estrogen” was awarded Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica '17 in Hybrid Arts, and in 2019 they completed a 10-month Fulbright residency in Yogyakarta, Indonesia investigating the relationship between Javanese mysticism and the plastic pollution crisis. Maggic is a recipient of the 2022 Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship, and their work has exhibited internationally including Kunsthal Charlottenborg (DK), Centre de Cultura Contemporánia de Barcelona (ES), Philadelphia Museum of Art (US), Science Gallery London (UK), Migros Museum of Contemporary Art (CH), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (DE), Jeu de Paume (FR), Museum of Contemporary Art Tuscon (US), Haus der elektronischen Kunst (CH), Institute of Contemporary Arts London (UK), Art Laboratory Berlin (DE), Akbank Sanat (TR), and Jogja National Museum (ID). They are a current member of the online network Hackteria: Open Source Biological Art, the laboratory theater collective Aliens in Green, the Asian feminist collective Mai Ling Vienna, as well as a contributor to the radical syllabus project Pirate Care and to the online Cyberfeminism Index.

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