Finite Portions, Infinite Appetites

Our first show for the year at Peek-a-Boo gallery, launched to coincide with Fringe World, is Peter and Molly's video work 'Finite Portions, Infinite Appetites'.

Peter and Molly are performance based artists residing in Perth, Western Australia. They have combined the amenities of themselves to attempt to disrupt and critique hermeneutic systems of culture and society.

Peter Cheng is 25 years old and is currently directing ‘Perth Artists,’ an online documentary series that opens a dialogue surrounding art practice, approach, means and context of established and emerging artists, which afforded him an artist residency at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. Peter graduated film school in 2011, and since has worked on documentation projects such as Proximity Festival, Tracey Moffatt’s ‘Art Calls’, Derek Kreckler’s ‘Accident & Process’, Performing Lines, STRUT Dance, PICA Salon and Abdul- Rahman Abdullah’s ‘Brother Please.’

Molly Biddle is 24 years old and currently enrolled in a Masters of Sexology. Molly gained experience in sound production during her time at The West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She has spent the past 2 years working for a non-for-profit suicide prevention organisation. Molly is currently a songwriter for a project titled ‘Safe Sex,’ which promotes liberal and safe sex practices via music and media. Molly is involved in the writing process surrounding the ideological basis of artworks.

Peter and Molly are currently working with local and interstate galleries, on the presentation of their works for 2016. 

"Finite Portions, Infinite Appetites" allows spectators to view local artists Peter and Molly in a perpetual state of deprivation. The work was captured after an extended period of fasting by the artists, who intended to mindfully disrupt the fluid narrative of the drive and drive satisfaction. A clear screen obstructs the connection between appetite and gratification as the artists are locked into a state of primal frustration. Onlookers witness a gustation which seems to almost, but never, occur. In the end we see the artists go hungry.

The artwork allows the artists to be present in a ‘salivative’ state, speaking to the importance of patience and attentiveness to the body. In the city of Perth our food appears to take a regal and brattish form, moving beyond the basic drive-satisfaction into the territory of gluttony. It is the perception of the artists that food in the city has become overindulged, abused and perverted.