Art 364B

I work primarily in photography and video to re-write notions of feminine identity, idealized beauty, and body politics.  My practice of self-portraiture developing themes of femininity and feminism dates back to my undergraduate years at the School of Visual Arts in the 1990’s.  My series of self-portraits from 2002 portray the extreme measures and artifice of female beautification as well as expose the humorous and sinister aspects of the accepted forms of bodily mutilation in today’s world.  The Beauty Files, an on-going collaborative project since 2000, explores the relationship between high fashion and low art through the use of a garage punk aesthetic.  This project was an opportunity for me to assume several roles including that of the photographer, videographer, performer, and artist as well as exposed me to the benefits of the collaborative process which I have continued to pursue in projects with other artists, such as the video Arachne Revealed and the multiple performances of Miss Magenta, both from 2005.  Recent independent works include the video Till Death, 2004, where I explore the anxieties of matrimony from the female perspective. Under the pressure to enjoy one of the most romantic and symbolic moments of a traditional wedding –the cutting of the cake- a new bride instead feels uncertainty, her anxiety manifests as imagined suffocation by her elaborate gown and gasping for breath. Girl, 2005, is another video work dealing with the pressures of youth and the quest for prettiness. The simple act of applying make-up, which is normally used to beautify oneself turns obsessive and becomes an ugly mess.