The exhibition references a neurological disorder called Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS). “When the person suffering from it is very exhausted, they can’t scale things, so things might appear bigger or smaller than real life,” explains Elmgreen. “That was the trigger for making the show, our inspiration source. Then we thought, What do we do for a show in LA in 2025 in this crazy world that is more absurd than our wildest dreams?” (The arrangement also presented an amusing challenge to its white-cube setting: “How will the gallery market this?” Dragset muses with a laugh. “If it’s half-size, is it half-price?”) The novelist Ottessa Moshfegh, whose 2018 novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation saw a nameless protagonist doing everything she could to sleep her way through her life (and a blue-chip art gig), will join the artists for a talk at the gallery on Friday.
Such transformations of the gallery environment have been a regular feature of the pair’s practice since 1995, when their collaboration began: over the years, they have turned galleries into nightclubs, spectacles of ancient ruin, active construction zones, and derelict swimming pools. But they’re perhaps most famous for Prada Marfa, the fake Prada store they installed in the rural Texas desert as a new interpretation of land art, in 2005.
After 30 years together, the two continue to combine sculpture, architecture, and wryly comedic performance to slyly take on structures of power. Humor is a constant in the work, as is a queer lens. “We try to challenge business as usual,” says Elmgreen. “We often have done what we call ‘dressing the white cube up in drag.’ You change its identity for at least a certain period.”
The idea is to give the audience a new perspective—whether on a physical place or on a notion such as masculinity. “You alter the role of the viewer in a way so you empower the spectator,” says Dragset.