Hexfluorosilicic
2015 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
9:58 minutes
Danielle Dean
Hexafluorosilicic acid is a type of sodium fluoride waste product that can be found in a large amount of widely available products such as cleaning fluids, toothpaste, rat poison, and drinking water. In Danielle Dean’s video Hexafluorosilicic , she mulls on this substance and its troubling co-option by modern society. In an indistinct US city, in an empty apartment, three characters (one of whom, unusually for Dean, is a white male) all wear brightly colored medical scrubs and undertake seemingly trivial and nonsensical experiments. The characters communicate with each other using the marketing language of products containing sodium fluoride: “complete care takes discriminating taste”, and “you can feel safer, hours longer, smile at yourself”. Their scripted lines are interspersed with intriguing over-laid visuals, brightly colored props, EDM and youtube-style “goo” videos – the filmic equivalent of “smoke and mirrors.” This is representative of the apparent disregard of the toxicity of Hexafluorosilicic (a substance that is banned in Europe) and the dangers it might bring. Laced throughout the video are repeated cuts to a mysterious doorway that the characters nervously peer into. We never see into the room, it’s contents remain ambiguous, and potentially dangerous. Hexafluorosilicic , points to the obfuscating system of healthcare, it’s management within the United States, and the desire for pearly white “healthy” teeth. These chemicals are promoted as “good for you,” but instead enforce beauty ideals and control upon us. In one part of the video we see an endless scroll of found/stock imagery which contains the substance, where Dean herself is pictured—everybody is complicit.
Danielle Dean creates videos that use appropriated language from archives of advertisements, political speeches, newscasts, and pop culture to create dialogues to investigate capitalism, post-colonialism, and patriarchy. Her work focuses on how subjectivity is constructed in relation to mass-marketed products, and how our behavior is molded by advertising. She also explores the dimensionality of materials and functions of technology through the lens of her own multinational background, and how they can be used as tools of oppression.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » THE GUARDIAN
Entangled Pasts: Art, Colonialism and Change review – the most radical show in the RA’s history | Art | The Guardian Skip to main content Skip to navigation Skip to navigation The First Supper (2021-23), Tavares Strachan’s lifesize recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper in the Royal Academy’s courtyard, the parts all played by heroes of Black history...
© » KADIST
Baktash Sarang Javanbakht
2014The series refers to the militarization in Iran and surrounding countries and criticizes it by naming it reproduction of failure...
© » LE MONDE
Versailles à la Cité interdite de Pékin, une exposition diplomatique Cet article vous est offert Pour lire gratuitement cet article réservé aux abonnés, connectez-vous Se connecter Vous n'êtes pas inscrit sur Le Monde ? Inscrivez-vous gratuitement Article réservé aux abonnés « La Foire de la ville de Nankin » (1761), de Marie Leszczynska, avec la collaboration de différents peintres...
© » KADIST
Humberto Diaz
2009The two works in the Kadist collection, Observador Pasivo and 3600 besos por hora by Diaz are culled from a vast compilation of videos and performances for the camera...
© » KADIST
Karla Kaplun
2019Studying the body in movement, this series of drawings depart from Karla Kaplun’s work A ztec BLAST® Workout (AWB) ...
© » KADIST
Marion Scemama, David Wojnarowicz
1989Political artist, painter, writer, performer, photographer, David Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992 in New York City, was one of the leading figures of the New York Downtown artistic scene of the 80s...
© » KADIST
Tania Candiani
2020“There is a tapestry of sounds around us.” – Tania Candiani Tania Candiani has long been interested in Acoustic Ecology: the study of relationships between humans and our environment mediated through sound...
© » KADIST
Caetano de Almeida
2013Caetano de Almeida’s abstract compositions in acrylic use delicately-rendered swirls of overlapping, colorful lines...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
The frenemy’s handshake: The Singapore Trilogy as political theatre | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints The Second Breakfast Company July 29, 2021 By Clarissa Oon (2,650 words, 8-minute read) My phone vibrated one night, with a notification that Singapore political party Workers’ Party (WP) was premiering a live video on Instagram...