March 14 marked the official opening of artist Machine Dazzle’s “Ouroboros” exhibition in the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s Irving Stenn, Jr. Family Gallery. The exhibit will unfold in three acts during the five months this piece will be featured at UMMA. The first act depicts the Ouroboros, an ancient symbol displaying a snake eating its own tail, through a sculpture that hangs from the gallery ceiling of a 30-foot conceptual snake whose insides are made out of manipulated plastic.
The second act of the exhibit will open April 30 and will be accompanied by U-M student artwork. In the final act, opening June 28, the sculpture will be transformed into a costume that will be worn by students in a piece of performance art celebrating Pride Month.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Dazzle said he is invested in and intrigued by the cyclical nature of items and their rebirth into new hands for new purposes. This interest manifested itself in the exhibit “Ouroboros,” which is almost entirely made up of found objects such as plastic containers and cans.
“All of these objects have stories, and you start to wonder what these stories are,” Dazzle said. “Where did this milk jug come from, who lost their sunglasses? There have been so many objects that have been out there for so long you don’t even know what they are anymore. Some of them are buried in the earth, some of them fell into the river. … You start to think about cycles.”
Dazzle was awarded the position of 2024 Roman J. Witt Artist in Residence by the Stamps School of Art & Design, through which he has been developing “Ouroboros.” Dazzle said he also describes himself as an art director, singer-songwriter, costume designer, set designer, performer, maximalist and more.
“I’ve experimented with different things, and I’ve become different things,” Dazzle said. “Design is a practice, music is a practice, art is a practice; it’s a whole lifestyle. I’ve become all of these things at different points in my life and sometimes at the same time. I’m in a show right now … and I designed and made the costumes but I’m also one of the performers, one of the singers, one of the movers in the show.”
The skills Dazzle has developed throughout his multifaceted career are all on display in “Ouroboros,” which incorporates — or will incorporate by the conclusion of the third act — sound elements, staging expertise, costume creation, maximalism, performance and other components.
Dazzle said he suggests the viewers of his piece think about the stories of their own objects: their regeneration, where they might have come from and where they might go.
“Go into this exhibit considering what you consumed and discarded today,” Dazzle said.
James Leija, director of public experience and learning at UMMA, is a co-producer of the project, along with Chrisstina Hamilton, the director of the Roman Witt Visiting Artist Programs. As co-producer, Leija works with Dazzle to help with the materials, space and timing of the exhibit and also functions as a thought partner to be a sounding board for ideas. Leija told The Daily the exhibit is centered around creating sculptures from discarded and unconventional materials.
“(Dazzle) had the inspiration to use materials recovered from water waste, and one component of the exhibit is the use of plastics collected from the Huron River watershed,” Leija said. “Machine is taking the Ouroboros, a symbol of circularity and rejuvenation, and has physically applied it to the notion of plastic, which is constantly reproducing and will never go away.”
LSA junior Jared Ruffing is one of two gallery interpreters for “Ouroboros,” who will give guided tours of the exhibit. Ruffing told The Daily they felt Dazzle’s interaction with the Huron River and community organizations was important to the exhibit’s meaning.
“A lot of trash that you see in this piece was collected in collaboration with organizations that were already trying to clean up the Huron River,” Ruffing said. “So I think it’s especially important for artists who are coming to a new space that they have never been to before to engage with the community.”
Leija also said Dazzle was specifically chosen as a Queer artist to create an artistic space for the Queer community on campus.
“Machine had a midcareer retrospective in New York focusing on Queer maximalism, and his vision highlights how reclaiming and reusing discarded objects is important for Queer identity,” Leija said. “We wanted to invite a Queer artist to make a new work as a way to invite Queer identity into the building and give Queer audiences a landing place to come together.”
Ruffing, who identifies as Queer and maximalist, said the exhibition feels made for people who may be exploring parts of themselves.
“I come into this space, and there are even some things that don’t resonate with me, so it’s interesting for me to think of this exhibition as an exploration of who art is for and what constitutes an artistic experience,” Ruffing said. “I think it would be easy to walk into this piece and think because you’re not Queer, you can’t connect to the art, which isn’t true.”
Leija said having visiting artists like Dazzle on campus creates an opportunity for students to interact with works of art and the artistic process.
“Visiting artists and exhibits allows students to look into the creative process, and (visiting artists are) part of the Stamps Speaker Series, so students can learn about creative perspectives and career paths,” Leija said. “(Dazzle’s) work digs into different ideas about identity and sustainability, and it shakes up the way we think about these ideas because he applies his specific artistic lens to them.”
Daily Staff Reporters Sachi Gosal and Jacqueline Ambrose can be reached at sgosal@umich.edu and jaxamb@umich.edu.