Isabelle Frances McGuire's 'LOOP' Examines Digital Flattening Through Animatronic Sculptures

Chicago-based artist Isabelle Frances McGuire's solo exhibition 'LOOP' at King's Leap Fine Art in Manhattan uses kitbashed readymades and animatronics to critique how screen culture mediates the body. Works like 'Bust2{Assassins Creed NPC, Normandy, New United States Flag}' (2023) feature motion-triggered sounds from Call of Duty: WWII, while a recycled WowWee Alive Elvis bust recites canned quips. McGuire's sculptures parody mass media repetition, referencing videogame NPCs and Elvis's filtered persona. The show includes a basement installation with a shimmering partition referencing videogame loading zones, flanked by a model of Call of Duty's Simon 'Ghost' Riley and a crying baby Yoda doll. McGuire, who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, began incorporating mechanical parts in 2020 with works like 'Digestive Duck Entry Level Position'. Their latest piece, 'Robot Donkey 2' (2023), an animatronic donkey deaccessioned from Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, will be shown at What Pipeline, Detroit, through 14 October, with a performance by McGuire's band Suicide Moi on 2 September.