My work deals with the condition of woman in contemporary society, questioning her obsessions with body image, beauty, sexuality and ageing. I am also interested in honoring women’s bodies and cherishing growing old.

With a minimalist approach—and mostly conceptual based pieces—, I use various media such as installation, collage, objects, and video-performance.

Beauty routines of embellishment have been incorporated in our daily lives in such a way that we hardly notice nor question them anymore. In the name of beauty most women will put on makeup, do their hair and nails, depilate, diet, fix their noses and breasts. Although few women will reach society’s beauty ideals, many will sculpt their bodies as needed.

In some video works I play along with women’s beauty rituals, performing them in exaggerated ways to reflect the pressures imposed by today’s society. The camera focuses on the part of the body where the action takes place: With repetitive gestures I apply makeup continuously for one or two hours, questioning our attraction to makeup and its power of seduction.

Since migrating to New York in 2001 I have kept a permanent dialogue with Guatemala, which has been a departing point for my artwork. Being away has led me to become interested in exploring themes that affect my country—feminicide, repression, violence and sexism. Lately, this physical distance has also led me to work with the theme of memory and remembrance, approaching it in a sensorial way as another form of communication, for example using olfactory elements to evoke memories on people.

Jessica Lagunas, New York, April 2008