Lea Cetera

Lives and works in New York, NY

Artist statement

As a mixed-race Filipina and Italian American woman, my recent work has been interested in examining cognitive dissonance; the ability to be able to hold two or more opposing truths simultaneously, as well as the site of the female body as a working machine for society, one that is highly regulated and controlled. My interdisciplinary practice spans video, sculpture, theater, performance, and installation to implicate the viewer into these perspectives. In recent work, I have ventured into the world of kinetics. Chassis (2022) is a rotational-casting machine that spins a hollow resin cast female figure filled with two liquids of different densities. One is dyed red, the other blue—the figure emulsifies into purple as it spins and separates cleanly back into its two colors when still—a diagram of two opposing qualities within oneself that can coexist but will never combine. Another core aspect that this piece addresses is the absolute reliance on unseen labor, paired with the lack of acknowledgement or credit it receives, which positions Chassis as a metaphor for the female body as a machine that is ever-supporting yet rarely credited—a concern central to feminist critiques of women's unpaid and undervalued labor. The roto-casting machine is the process by which the hollow cast is made as well as its means of presentation. I chose the title Chassis as it refers to the body or framework of a car/machine but is also colloquially used to refer to the body of a woman in an...

Artwork