TrustoCorp—that secret organization hailing from Brooklyn and known for their cynical product disruptions of signs, monuments, magazines and businesses all around town opened its latest show at Opera Gallery in Soho. The exhibition, titled Life Cycle and on view through November 11, features a few familiar works but mostly brand new pieces falling victim to the groups satire.
There is a dark room that is devoted to vintage arcade games like "Riot Cop" and "Seal Team 6" and on the lower level, the highlight for me, four back-lit light boxes constructed to look like stained glass windows that feature religious denominations as Transformer like robot warriors.
The collective premieres a set of new parody products like cereals "Smore War," "Beaties" and "Choco Spills." For each, the space on a cereal box normally reserved for nutritional information sports pertinent lists: the profits of companies rebuilding countries where America
"Botched Operation," a pun on the popular childrens boardgame "Operation," acts as a seething commentary on the healthcare issue in which each of the items to be removed from the life-sized skeleton is a factoid about the American healthcare industry. One piece in the shape of a knife near the figure's throat reads "Cut throat insurance policies (60% of personal bankruptcies in America
While the group doesn’t necessarily offer any solutions to the chosen targets of it’s crosshairs there is enough humor thrown in the serious topics that call to mind a Michael Moore film in that it presents an ugly issue in a fun and digestible manner.
