I LOOKED MY BEST TONIGHT
Works by Andreea Cioran & Ileana Pascalau
The exhibition brings together two different artistic practices with a joint focus: examining how the female body has historically been staged as 'fashionable body'. Cioran and Pascalau approach different ways of beautifying, adjusting and transforming the body according to ever-changing ideas of beauty. The references are manifold: from direct procedures, such as aesthetic surgery, drastic diets and work-outs, or virtual interventions with the help of beauty- and make-up apps, to the seemingly natural, yet culturally determined signs and markers, which stage and thereby shape the female gender identity: facial expression, gestures, clothing, jewelry and hair. Thereby, fashionable forms of the female body acquire further significance than mere beauty; all the more, they gain influence on staging both sexual difference and class distinction.
The works in the exhibition encompass several media, ranging from photography, sculpture, drawing, installation and VR. Pascalau employs a vocabulary coined from different visual traditions: baroque medical wax models, such as the “Anatomical Venus”, the religious practice of the jewel-encrusted relics, but also examples of fashion iconography and fetishism. She moves between past and present to establish connections between historical motifs and contemporary memes defining the visual culture of today. Cioran, on the other hand, focuses mainly on recent practices which emerged as a result of the rise of digital and social media, exploring phenomena such as the selfie, online avatars, branding and body trends. She examines the potential of smartphones as artistic medium and the possibility of turning a selfie into an art image equal to the self-portrait.
Insofar a clear delineation between an object and a subject position is no longer possible. A certain doubt is voiced towards the misconception that taking up an alleged subject position, such as for instance a strong representation of self necessarily entails an act of emancipation. In turn, a symbol of objectification can be overturned to serve emancipatory purposes.
Curated by Daniela Duca
