J Woltz, Deconstructing the Monster

Deconstructing the Monster: Teaching with the Monster

This work examines the construction of authority through the figure of the monster as educator. Monster Delvey occupies the role of teacher, producing a pedagogical system built from warnings, instructions, repetition, and incomplete forms of knowledge. Through the work’s fragmented audio, she instructs the viewer to look through a window, remain vigilant, avoid running too quickly, and remain aware of what might be watching from outside and in the clouds above. Her instructions initially resemble familiar forms of educational guidance, but gradually become circular and absurd. What occurs within this slippage between instruction and nonsense, and in the possibility that authority can be performed even when the knowledge is destabilized?

Artist Statement:

Woltz constructs immersive videos and environments that operate like living sets from lost footage from a twisted reality. Through video, set design, and the creation of props and characters, their work becomes an artificial stage where rituals of power, consumption, and authority are performed until the systems begin to collapse.

Drag, puppetry, and theatrical installation intertwine within these worlds to examine the performance of social power. Delvey, a drag persona that splits into three different forms, clutches at identity through means of self-preservation and becomes a spectacle of over-indulgence and consumption. Within this larger practice, Woltz also constructs fictional institutions that mimic the language of education, entertainment, and authority. In Teaching with the Monster, the figure of the monster becomes both teacher and subject, performing knowledge through an absurd educational system. The work uses humor and theatricality to expose how authority is constructed through performance, repetition, and cartoon aesthetics. By exaggerating these structures until they become ridiculous, Woltz creates worlds where the boundary between instruction, entertainment, and control begins to collapse.