Billie Clarken

Two Truths and a Lie

In this new series, Clarken adds nostalgic texts to a collection of Abercrombie & Fitch advertisements. The texts are a combination of personal anecdotes, and excerpts from The O.C., Laguna Beach, and The Hills that leaves viewers unable to identify real from fiction. In “Centerfold”, Clarken blurs fiction with memory again by appropriating a catalogue image for Abercrombie & Fitch, stretched across a bed , in the aftermath of a pillow fight. Two Truths and a Lie continues with an installation that transforms the tower into a throat, the red light closing in on itself as you near it’s glimmering centrepiece that’s soon to be what forces you back out.

Two truths and a lie: I saw my body transform into a copy of a spinoff that subconciously referenced a show inspired by everything sexy and free and unattainable. It was on my wall and on my best friend’s mom’s jeans that we all turned our noses to and wanted to lash out at. In that brawl I celebrated how easy it was to be something- to run up my grandparent’s credit card and become someone who could be casted in a fantasy I knew was fake and for me only.