On the second floor of the Arts Building, in room 245, lives the ever-changing Phyllis Gill Gallery. Throughout the quarter, the gallery is a venue for student undergraduate exhibitions within the Art Department, ranging from photography showcases, performances, multimedia works to screenings. During week three of the Winter 2025 quarter, fourth-year art major and queer studies minor student, Izze Mora, graced the gallery with their exhibition titled, “TAKE! TAKE! TAKE!

TakeTakeTake Poster

Around campus, Izze provoked intrigue by plastering bulletin boards with the show flyer, which stood out with its stark red background and big, bold white lettering – existing as a piece of art itself. Inside the gallery, the artwork took on several forms – physical, visual and thoughtful. Colorful clothing littered the gallery’s floor, appearing like a messed-up yard sale. The walls were decorated with seven large format prints and clothing. This time, though, the monochromatic design resembled the aesthetic of a Depop post. 

 

Courtesy Izze Mora

Immersed in Izze’s world, the viewer was invited to walk amongst the controlled chaos and sit upon the lone, clothing-covered bench in the middle of the room. In a literal sense, Izze invited guests to take items of clothing from the floor through the entrance phrase: “Will you?” Amidst the gallery, the lively human spectator moved in juxtaposition to the meticulously-placed clothing on the ground, which resembled lying bodies. This depiction created an especially ominous relationship with the living visitors around them. 

Courtesy of Izze Mora
Courtesy of Izze Mora

Izze Mora identifies themselves as “an artist, photographer and local nuisance.” However, within the context of being the creator of TAKE! TAKE! TAKE!, their identity shifts to “the Institution, the Media, and the Capitalist,” in their own words. 

What was your process in organizing and creating the work for TAKE! TAKE! TAKE!? What was the show’s message? 

Izze: “I used seven different cameras to shoot the seven different photographs – four on digital and three on film. I started with a camera worth about 12 grand ([that was] of course only accessible because I go to the prestigious institution that is UCR) and ended with a twenty-dollar point and shoot. As for the images themselves, I was emulating a format that’s common on Depop, Pinterest and Instagram to show a ‘marketed, manufactured identity.’ The photographs represent how ‘crafted’ our media apparatuses are – be it legacy news outlets or the art institutions as arbiters of culture. Everything is designed, a narrative to be told, and more importantly, to be sold.”

In some ways, the show seemed to reckon with themes of messiness, external perceptions of the self, youth and style. What themes did you have in mind when working on the show?

Izze: “Capitalism seeks eternal growth; in order to obtain more and more of the market, it co-opts and adapts its ways of marketing. Clothing trends cycle, and the market is quick to adapt to those cycles. With the advent of faster and faster production models coming out of the fashion industry such as Shein, DollsKill, Zara, H&M or whatever – culture is sold for cheap, trends are quickly made and killed, bought and then thrown away. Every twenty-year-old knows this, yet it’s so seductive. Our natural urge to express ourselves so explosively is preyed upon and indulged; the consequences of that are hard for many of us to admit. 

The show mostly used textiles to tell its story – how was this different from your past creative pursuits?

Izze: “I would say it’s less focused on the personal. However, I am not unimportant in this work. I also aimed to make the audience incredibly aware of their active participation. The outside observer is not sacred, they play an active role in continuing this cycle. But I as ‘the Institution’ created this situation in the first place. I dictated what was shown. As one explores the room, the images degrade, and as the media apparatus collapses over time, and the bullet holes become more and more obvious, so do the bodies.”

Courtesy of Izze Mora

The show flyer itself appeared as a work of art. Can you talk about the significance of its visuals? 

Izze: “It’s a key. It’s inspired by an Andreas Malm book, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” There are three images. The first is a film photo sourced by the Library of Congress of a Palestinian man and his daughter picking from an olive tree from the 1930s. The second image is from 1961, taken during the Civil Rights movement, in which a police officer sic’s a dog at a protestor, a Black Man. The third photo is of Bangladeshi garment workers.”  

What, and who, inspires you to create?

Izze: “My daily life, my relationships, everything anyone else will tell you. Personally, I find that my art acts as a way to process my own emotions, intellectually and spiritually. Especially for this show in particular – I mean the clothes on the floor, the ‘bodies’, resulted from my own doom-scrolling habits. Contrasting consumption and indulgence in fashion with the GoFundMe’s of Palestinian families and the reports of their deaths. As for artists who inspired me, Félix González-Torres would be the main one. If you don’t know him, Google him. His work is currently being erased. Cycles of resistance and cycles of oppression seem to be eternal.”

While Izze’s show was only on display for the duration of Winter 2025’s week three, they are a regularly practicing artist within UCR’s Department of Art. With graduation coming up in the spring, fans of Izze hope to see the artist’s works continuously embraced.


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