A NARRATIVE ABOUT WOMEN WHO LOOK AT SCREENS WHICH BECOME MIRRORS
The piece was born out of a long-known radical observation: femininity is a struggle. It is a struggle in regard to the gaze of others, to the patriarchal and racialized system, to feminism and other social fights. Interestingly enough, however, over the past few months, the answer came out from social platforms such as Instagram– looking at millions of young women slather on a full face on makeup and at the same time talk of social issues, and proclaim themselves feminists, I found out that reconciliation was in contradiction, and that their movement was decidedly modern.
This piece thus explores how hyperfemininity and its patriarchal components (such as makeup) are being used in a subversive and performative manner to reach a new state of women empowerment in a resolutely feminist way. In the form of a book which is meant to be ripped apart to be read, the piece ambitions to paint a picture of the state of this new hyperfemininity, mixing fictional and crowdsourced text and images. Introducing an idea of progression, it is also very attached to the idea of making and doing to become.
With it comes a looped video of hands untying a tangled piece of cloth. It is not specified what, but it seems like something is being unveiled or freed from something else. The video, being 11 minutes, reclaims the idea of time progression which comes with performativity, and projects it into the piece.
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