2. THE TACO GROUP

‘The Taco Group’ relates the tale of a post-apocalyptic kaffeeklatsch dedicated to founding a utopian city on the ashes of the city that came before. Unfortunately, the group devolves into Real Housewives-style infighting, and their often conflicting visions never get off the ground.

According to my artist’s statement, the story was inspired by a bunch of junk: 

... a couple of business cards I’d saved (one for a company that referred to itself as a Group, the other from a man I met in a sauna who asked for help building a virtual city), a book of baby names (the androgynous, melodramatic ones that are now popular), a shredded Styrofoam cup I passed on the street (peeled and cut in a way that resembled the Eye of Horus), the tangible comfort I feel when I see a taco buffet (it’s been too long).

I wrote the artist’s statement to accompany a performance I adapted from the story for the Breaking Ranks Reading & Exhibition held at the Headlands Center for the Arts. In addition to the artist’s statement, I letterpress printed a progress report, assembled a slideshow bordering on rudimentary animation, and handcrafted a taco buffet made of paper, glue, Mylar, and polymer clay.

Click HERE to pre-order The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales—a fiction collection that features ‘The Taco Group’ along with 21 other stories.