Production stills: Roni Mocán
“Para besarte mejor”
“The Better to Kiss You With”
New York, 2003
Video:
Single-channel digital video
57 minutes 48 seconds
Color, Silent
Photos:
Digital C-Prints, 16” x 20” each
Video close-up of my mouth in a static single shot, in which I apply red lipstick continuously for one hour.
In the name of beauty most women will put on makeup, do their hair, nails, depilate, diet, fix their noses and breasts. Although few women will reach society’s beauty ideals, they will sculpt their bodies as needed. In this video 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 lipstick continuously for one hour, questioning our attraction to makeup and its power of seduction.
Its title was inspired by the Red Riding Hood tale.
Installation views:
“The Art of Sensuality”, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, 2006 (event)
AIM 26, Bronx Museum, New York, 2006
Armi della prossimità. Tra performance e arti visive, NABA, Milano, Italy, 2006
III Tirana Biennial, Albania, 2005
Contemporary Latin American Art Group Show, Shimna, New York, 2005
Related artworks:
“Para
verte mejor” (“The Better to See You With”)
“Para
acariciarte mejor” (“The Better to Caress You With”)
“Retorno
a la pubertad” (“Return to Puberty”)
Related press:
Imagining
Ourselves: A Global Generation of Women
Goldman, Paula. Imagining Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation
of Woman. San Francisco: New World Library.
West, Cassandra. “A generation arrives.” Chicago Tribune/Woman News, 2006
Cofiño de Prera, Lucrecia. “La intimidad en el arte”, elPeriódico, Guatemala, 2003