Mariah Kock

One time my best friend accidentally poured gasoline on herself, then had to scrub it off for 5 minutes with a chemical wash. Then she had to speak to the fire department, and we had to get her a new outfit at Walmart. My name is Mariah Kock, I’m from California and I’m happy to be here. After working with pig skin for my thesis, I bought a pig stuffed animal that I love very much. My favorite thing to do is drive, especially in the desert, and I feel very much at home when I’m on the long road to nowhere. I love driving through the Mojave, I think it’s my favorite place. I’m an image maker.

Materials utilized in my thesis are raw pig skin from the butcher sewn together with fishing line and tattooed with CIA psyop/conspiracy diagrams, pig’s blood as fabric and thread dye, sanded and burnt photos of me, carbon ink from tattoo transfer paper, latex, and Clorox-scented garbage bags spraypainted gold.

The latex dress is sun-damaged (to resemble flesh) with a tattoo carbon stencil transfer on the front of a 22,000 year old sacrificial scene.

Inspiration was derived from the Silence of the Lambs trilogy, Corinne Day, Ice Age abstract symbols on cave walls, general cave paintings, ancient tattoos, and present-day technological “conspiracy” diagrams relating to mind control, which were tattooed on the dress constructed from pig skin.

I created a massive book with everything used while constructing my thesis as well.