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An uncanny symbolic statement to the persistent nature of gender politics that even today infiltrates the corporate arena, Expulsion Cell is literally, an office turned 'padded-cell/asylum cell.' Each of the four walls and the floor are padded and covered with white cotton panels of fabric, sewn from ceiling to floor, in the manner of the button down oxford shirt, underlining a stringent masculinized space. All sound in the space is immediately absorbed, creating an aurally 'dead' space in which the sounds of the viewer's body itself seemed exaggerated -like when you have a cold and hear only the voice of your own body. The florescent lights further illuminate the stark whiteness of the space, leaving the viewer's eye to be drawn to the ambiguous form made of lipstick which is laid in one corner, beckoning the viewer to deface, or 'queer' the environment. As viewers defaced the environment with the lipstick, the subjectivity of the office space itself is revealed in relation to its inscribed gender roles.

Exhibited:

1994 in "The Office", New York.

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