Triibe: Same Difference

Fueled by a common interest in identity, performance artists Alicia, Kelly, and Sara Casilio (identical triplet sisters) and National Geographic photographer Cary Wolinsky joined forces in 2006 to form TRIIIBE - an artistic collective that often expands to include family, friends, and fellow artists.  TRIIIBE's painstakingly staged photographs, performances, and videos play up the sameness of the sisters to provoke cultural conversations about gender, equality, and difference, while traversing hot-button social and political issues.  Behind each TRIIIBE endeavor is a clever, satirical, and egalitarian exchange of ideas and an elaborate cluster of costumes, wigs, props, and make-up.

TRIIIBE: same difference begins by welcoming FAM visitors into a fantastical, faux dressing room, awash in the actual clothing and accessories worn by the Casilios to bend gender and slip through stereotype.  The photographs visitors will see in FAM's main galleries are the result of countless hours of sketching, planning, costume changing, and fine-tuning by all members of the group, collectively.  Wolinsky is an integral part of this creative process and in his hands the camera, too, becomes a collaborator, rather than just a documentary tool.  Every shot, every tableau is shaped by TRIIIBE with and through the camera's lens.  Wolinsky and the sisters then scrutinize hundreds of possible images, poses, and variations before reaching consensus about the final photo to print.  This labored, democratic approach results in unique conceptual photographs that are highly theatrical, stylized, forceful, and refined.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.