Allora & Calzadilla

Living and working together Allora and Calzadilla have developed an intense collaborative practice wherein disparate ideas are brought together to examine political and social ideologies. Alongside traditional mediums such as sculpture and photography, past work has incorporated dance, music, sport and audience participation. The tension of these at times difficult juxtapositions is a common motif in their materially eclectic output. 

How To Appear Invisible (2011) features a German shepherd wearing a KFC bucket as it wanders through the demolition site of the Palast der Republik, the once cultural and political centre of East Germany. In the Intermission (Halloween Iraq) series, the artists use hand printing techniques to imagine the horror of the war torn Middle East through the filter of America’s camp and commercialised horror holiday. Both works use these recognisable sites and symbols to assess notions of power and transformation.