The Force of Beauty, The Beauty of Force

Synopsis

Based on a series of ads in 2008 on Телеканал звезда [the Star Channel], owned by the Russian Department of Defense. The ads seek to draw parallels between stereotypical feminine daily gestures of fashionable self-imaging and stereotypical activities of male soldiers. These ads are sequenced, then juxtaposed with “upskirt” footage of a famous Italian fashion model, downloaded from Youtube. By means of this juxtaposition and strategic interventions in speed and chronological orientation (backwards and forwards) two forms of gendered construction of the gaze are compared and contrasted. This work is a single channel version of part of an on-going series, called Equivalences, generally presented in the format of a site specific installation.