Interactive, durational performance
Installation dimension 48” x 48”
2018
A living statue performs gestures of femininity from the 1920s to today. Choose the decade you want to explore by pushing oversize buttons on the platform.
Each button skips the music forward or backward in time. The living statue responds to the music – a mashup of ads and pop songs – performing gestures from fashion and beauty ads from the same time period. As this durational performance goes on, the statue’s cheerful facade starts to crack. Fatigue shimmers just below the surface, exposing the exhaustion of trying to embody an ever-shifting feminine ideal.
Choreography, costume, set, music, custom software by Catherine Siller.
This interactive version of “Are You Buying?” was commissioned by Somerville’s ArtBeat Festival.