Claudia Kogachi, Hot Girls with IBS

18 Aug

Claudia Kogachi

Hot Girls with IBS

Hot Lunch
227 High Street
Ōtautahi (Christchurch)
Aotearoa (New Zealand)

6–21 August 2021

I wanted to shit myself at the last gig I went to. I preemptively wore a cream coloured denim skirt that I got from Savemart that day, barging into that gig with the unwarranted confidence that a person who frequently experiences IBS symptoms should never have, and flaunted the damn garment. The wriggling of my torso as I gracelessly moved around expanded and contorted the foul contents of my insides. I didn’t want to stop dancing—everyone looked really good. I skipped the gym this morning and this was my only way to compensate by squeezing in a cardio session on the dancefloor. Should I care this much? I mean, I still look good… right?

Kogachi’s fascination and close examination of her friends’ collective struggles with digestive ailments almost requires a novice comprehension of internet-level literacy and humour. Hot Girls With IBS counteracts the association of “being hot” as synonymous to the epidemic of competitive individualism, and instead finds comfort and novelty in collective self-deprecation as an exceptionally attractive trait. Akin to her previous work that depicted various sports settings with her mother, Kogachi’s personal relationships remain paramount to how she fabricates her figures by treating them with close-to-life, two-dimensional bowel discomfort in scenarios where holding gas isn’t optional. Her friends’ vulnerabilities aren’t mired by seriousness or sentimentality, but rather in its comedic pursuit to attract and gain power through the hot girl moniker.

— Nadine Paredes (exhibition text)