delusional (2024)

Maralee Joyner's piece, delusional, immerses the audience into the psyche of the most innocent pathological liar. This work began when Maralee came across a piece of text that read "I'm sorry if using my imagination means that I'm lying." After stumbling upon this idea, Maralee started to contemplate the difference between engaging with the imaginative and intentional deceit. Growing up in a religious context, Maralee was taught to view lying as harmful and wrong. Through this work, Maralee has started to deconstruct these beliefs and explore the possible positivity of lying. Or at least the positivity of being actively engaged in an imaginary world.

For this piece, Maralee has constructed a character that has an obvious problem with lying. But instead of using lies to damage and deceive, this character uses lies to imagine their dream world. Through the rose colored lenses of a child, this character floats through life full of awe and wonder. Rather than giving their attention to reality, they experience life with their head stuck in the clouds in a dream world of their own design. This piece weaves together scenes that invite the audience to witness this character's hard work in maintaining their perfectly delusional lifestyle.