Ilana Harris-Babou’s Guide to Health & Happiness

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Drawing upon the aesthetics of cooking shows, beauty tutorials, home improvement television, and more, Brooklyn based artist Ilana Harris-Babou subverts the affirming messages and shiny surfaces of our aspirational culture in her video and sculptural work. Emblematic of the deceiving cheerfulness of Harris-Babou’s works, the 2016 film Cooking with the Erotic features two cooking show hosts—played by the artist and her mother—providing instruction over a twinkling score. At first, the video seems innocuous but quickly turns unsettling and dissonant as the unfazed hosts discuss different forms of power and harnessing the erotic while creating mystifying concoctions. This short documentary film follows Harris-Babou as she explores what can happen when the tasteful aesthetics of aspirational media come into contact with the absurd, grotesque, and uncomfortable.

Originally a painter, Harris-Babou started working in video to explore the materiality of paint and alchemical transformations that she found exciting in the painting process. Recognizing that her mother, Shelia Harris, “was such a ham” the artist began involving her in her videos as well, with Harris performing as the host in works including Finishing a Raw Basement (2017) and Decision Fatigue (2020). As the artist began making the video work she is known for today, she started integrating installations and sculptures into her practice, further populating and giving additional context to the worlds she was creating. 

In 2023, after seeing ads for ‘smart mirrors,’ a reflective surface combined with a digital display, the artist began developing her own twist on the product, culminating in her exhibition “Needy Machines” at Manhattan’s Candice Madey gallery. Rather than leading viewers through an exercise routine or providing information about one’s health as they are designed to, Harris-Babou’s smart mirrors ask for help completing a CAPTCHA or swipe through confusing materials from health insurance documents. “A lot of these themes that I think about, like aspiration and how we try to seek control over our lives, they come so much to the forefront in the space of wellness and wellness culture,” says the artist. “Our bodies are obviously the site where so many of these things really play out.” For the artist, both the viewer and the smart mirrors are potentially “needy machines,” symbolizing the tension between our desire to control and optimize our health and the reality of our fragile, mortal bodies.

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