"Surreal Circus" is an immersive art installation created by award-winning artist and assistant professor of studio art Andrea Benge. The installation was created to intentionally provoke the audience and to challenge the stigma surrounding the female body in society.
The art installation, open from Oct. 4 - Oct. 29, combines her history in performance and circus art with animation to create a four-panel installation filled with aerial and circus movements.
Benge said she hopes to change the stigma surrounding the female body and show that all women deserve control and respect over their bodies, regardless of their professions or hobbies.
"It's always been this idea of the female grotesque," Benge said. "It's always been about searching what it means for me to be a female and live in this body in this society."
Benge pulls inspiration for the artwork in her installation from her own experience doing burlesque.
"I used to keep it to the side and very private," Benge said. "It kind of dawned on me that it really is the same thing: My performance work is part of my creative work."
To create her animated films and avatars, Benge uses videos of her performances or of people doing circus acts.
Oftentimes, Benge's performers wear a suit while performing to catch the persons' dynamic movements and retarget them to animate for the film.
"I just take the footage from the suit and then I do a thing called retargeting," Benge said. "Then I can put them anywhere in the space."
Sandro Del Rosario, an assistant professor and animator, said Benge's art installation brings a unique approach to combining circus art and animation.
"I've never seen something that combines this kind of performance with the art ... and has content that is interesting to bring to an audience," Del Rosario said. "I find it very beautiful but it can be, for some people, edgy or make them think."
Under the name Andiland, Benge's work includes different mediums, such as paintings and films, and focuses on her research to understand the "female grotesque" in society.
Benge first began working with animation for her thesis project, called Desert Air, during COVID-19 and her time as a graduate student at George Mason University.
"I had started making some weird video art with my performance character," Benge said. "I just took three weeks and I taught myself animation because we weren't leaving the house."
Benge has shown her films and received awards all around the world and has participated in festivals such as Slamdance Film Festival and Sydney World Film Festival.
With her success, Benge said there comes a lot of criticism. She said throughout her research, she has received a lot of backlash for how she portrays women and the content of her art.
"My work has always been the thing that if somebody's uncomfortable with themselves, it shows right away," Benge said. "Sometimes it comes out as anger towards me that they think society has told us that women can't do that."
Benge teaches several studio art classes at ASU and said she encourages her students to focus on their work despite negativity.
Sara Montes, a student of Benge and a junior studying animation, said it is important for artists to embrace their work despite criticism.
"I think this installation is important because a lot of the time I feel like people disregard that it's an art form," Montes said. "People should come and see it and be able to see that it's more than that. It's performance work; it's art."
Edited by Tiya Talwar, Senna James, Alexis Heichman and Madeline Schmitke.
Reach the reporter at alillest@asu.edu and follow @allylillestol on X.
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Allison is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication. This is her first semester at The State Press. She has also worked at Arizona PBS and Blaze Radio.
