For the next two months Platform Arts will host one of the most subversive and thought-provoking exhibitions to visit Geelong.
Melbourne-based performance artist Georgia Banks presents Villain Edit, an irreverent and fearless deep-dive into the world of reality television, AI and contemporary celebrity culture.
“Reality television has a chokehold on our culture,” Banks said.
“I think a lot of people watch it with their guard down. It’s designed to be mindless popcorn entertainment, but it actually has a massive impact on the way we exist and treat each other.
“Reality TV is the contemporary Colloseum, and I think something like that has always existed in society; a place where people can gather to watch human suffering with no social consequence.”
Banks’ investigations have gone far beyond the academic. She spent a year competing in beauty pageants, transforming herself as she joined that world in order to critique it.
That experience gave rise to “genuine fears around being able to return to an authentic version” of herself and forms part of Villain Edit, which centres around digital installations and documentation of her work.
The exhibition, at Platform Arts, culminates with two live shows in late September, where attendees form the live studio audience for a reality cooking show with a twist.
“It’s an imaginary reality TV show about the food that’s served at the funerals of celebrities, so it’s dinner and a show,” Banks said.
“It will be filmed, so you really are there for a taping of an episode of Death Warmed Up. It’s going to be really fun.”
Villain Edit opens with a free event on Saturday, August 2, running until September 26.
