Good woman 24/7
Project concept
The project is based on a social parade about a «good» woman who is always in a good mood, doesn’t «pill» or «brain,» finds joy in little things, and «paints» any space. A woman’s ability to remain silent, patient, and in good spirits is violence from outside and from within. Women are required to continue their voluntary act of self-sacrifice and neglect. How long can a face be held?
Video Concept
In the video, I artificially recreate the behavior of a «good» woman in a maximum, sterile way. I’m only focusing on visualizing the social pathetic, doing an experiment of patience and face preservation. Thus, the viewer can see what comes out of it outside the context, the conditions, and the distractions. To that end, I have gathered a variety of women to perform and visually record an ongoing voluntary act of self-restraint. I asked six women to smile as long as they could, and when it seemed that they could no longer smile through force, despite pain, convulsions, spasms, and fatigue. As a result, the video of six smiling heroes lasts 24 hours, emphasizing the need for a woman to smile and be friendly at all times and everywhere, under all circumstances.
Tiser with time codes with three heroines
The video is displayed as a continuous stream, so as one viewer is likely to catch only one of the heroines as each smiles for at least two hours. The video is supplemented by a television screen, which transmits another part of the work collected from recycled commercials. The commercial concentrates on the social tent, making it absurd. The woman smiles almost all the time on the screen, no matter what happens to her or what the story is. Taking food commercials as the basis, I removed the smiles from women’s faces, leaving them the right to be neutral. So two of my videos complement each other — one visualises the social parathern, the other disrupts it.
The concept of a series of photographs
A series of photos are painting portraits of heroin from the video, compared to their portraits. In painting, I pay attention to the details, the transmission of individual traits and moods, trying to capture the character of the heroine. Photos, on the other hand, capture the moment when the smile is «on-demand» from the video, and they are printed in the formal standard size of 3×4 cm. I encounter an individuality and an expression of external requests for mimics.
Oil, photo paper, plywood, photograph 29,5×29.5 cm
Oil, photo paper, plywood, photograph 29,5×29.5 cm
The whole series
Exposition sketch
Good Women participated in the project: Alice Mark Eva Dimitriadi Eva Evgenyevna Lena Ginsburg Lera Kablukov Lisa Kulagina Light, technical equipment, studio: Alexander Balakin Work with Artificial Intelligence: Daniel Zuev
