It’s a Boy! (2010)
Early on in my career I worked as a photographers assistant on glamour shoots. When the women went home after the shoot there would be an array of bits of pretend woman left behind – broken false nails, pulled-out blonde hair extensions, smeared fake tan, false eyelashes and skimpy underwear.
These ingredients that are employed to signify Woman, essentially the details that constitute the Lacanian mask of femininity, fascinated me. Where do we locate the idea of an essential femininity? Or it is merely a masquerade?
These glossy, seductive images, posed for by men and presented as an e-fit suggest a tear in the mask…
(First exhibited in March 2010 at New Players Theatre, London. Part of See You Next Tuesday festival.)
