Alicia Frankovich
T-E-S-L-A- face, T-E-S-L-A- crash, T-E-S-L-A- crash face dummy I, 2023-24
Melbourne-based Frankovich works at the intersection of sculpture, performance, and installation. Her practice explores tensions between the primal instincts of the human body and the rapid transformations in technology, society, and the environment. She investigates how the body’s physicality and behaviours function within social structures, while engaging with power dynamics and the shifting relationship between audience and performer.
This speculative artwork repurposes a deployed tesla airbag salvaged from a scrapped vehicle. Cast in fleshy-pink resin, the airbag no longer functions as soft cushioning for bodily protection; instead, it appears like a cryogenic carcass, frozen in time. Frankovich’s work explores the dystopian trajectory of 'big tech', questioning its control and impact on human and non-human biological reproduction. Ultimately, she asks us to consider what ‘life’ is becoming in the face of these escalating forces.
- Artist / Maker
- Alicia Frankovich (1980)
- Creation Date
- 2023—24
- Place created
- Australia - Melbourne
- Collection
- University Art Collection
- Subjects
- Art and design - sculpture
- Materials used
- Deployed Tesla air bag, epoxy glass resin, aluminium TIG rods
- Dimensions
(H x W x D) - 54 x 57.5 x 26 cm
- Credit line
- The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Purchased through the Margaret Cooper Bequest Fund, 2024
- Accession number
- 2024.008.001
- Copyright
- © The artist Request Access