Live Pelt

Ronald Feldman Gallery

Group: alt.discuss.internet.sites.weird Date: Tue, Sep 30, 2003, 8:32pm (MDT-1) From: (roboT2003)
--- Live Pelt, by Kelly Heaton, is a multimedia installation based on the transformation of 64 previously owned Tickle Me Elmo dolls, the popular consumer toy, into a woman?s coat. Fashioned from the toys? pelts and electronics, the coat (entitled The Surrogate) provides full body vibration and is designed to be a substitute lover.

Using Elmo as a vector to channel information about contemporary American culture, the installation encompasses moods both poignant and Frankenstein weird. The narrative investigates frontier economics, the human-machine relationship, and the technologist?s power to play with life. In all seriousness, Heaton?s sense of humor prevails.