My work explores the relationship between the body and clothing, drawing attention to questions concerning sexuality, identity, voyeurism and fantasy, all from a specifically feminist/post-feminist viewpoint. I intentionally play on prejudices and stereotypes, creating a constant shift between the sensual and the grotesque while tapping into a pool of endless roles, poses, and personae. All clothing carries a gendered message, as well as functioning as a social masquerade. In contrast, I choose to alter this dynamic, emphasizing the sculptural element of clothing as opposed to its function of signifying a second skin. Therefore, in my work, I strive to encourage a different, real, non-judgmental gaze, beyond the common generalizations and the objectified perceptions of the body. Disregarding gender conventions in a bold and sometimes disturbing manner, I use my own body, surrendering myself to the mercy of the public eye.
Since the beginning of my artistic practice, I have been staging private performances (in the apartment, no audience) in which my body would serve as the main sculptural material, adorned with pieces of clothing that have been altered according to my taste. In addition to these outfits, I make use of different staging concepts in order to create an overall environment that will best capture my artistic vision. As I was originally trained in painting, these private performances were used only as studies for my painted images. In 2006, after a few attempts with experimental video, I abandoned the canvas completely and began to document these performances directly through video and photography. Now, the actual work I am doing in the studio entails conceiving of and preparing a performance or editing a video rather than the classic activities of painting and drawing.
Up until now, calling the intimate actions that I do on a regular basis ‘performances’ still seems very odd. Rather, they feel like a natural activity. The decision to record them comes after an indefinite period of time and once I have become more conscious of what I’m trying to do. Each one of my videos includes a performance as their starting point. My relation to film is to document my actions and to use the medium as an independent or expanded artistic practice. The same concept is in use when I relocate my original (intimate) performances into a more public environment or exhibition space - the video camera functions as the medium between the public and myself.
To date, I have preferred to use my own body in my work in order to retain total control of the images, as well as for obvious practical reasons. When I record my body, I achieve a more remote view of my own and it gives me the ability to show a certain degree of autonomy. In this manner, I am actively in control: I direct, choreograph, and perform my spectacle of femininity. This process also unites the roles of performer and camerawoman (video artist), and I see this as a new, expanded concept of feminist self-presentation. This is important because, to the female spectator, the public and private presentation of the female body—i.e. in film, on television, in photography—is often intimidating instead of empowering. The media chooses highly manipulated views based on certain codes, models, and ideals of beauty, and therefore has a significant and largely unwarranted impact on how a woman perceives herself. On the one hand, the modern woman has hard-won the autonomy to look how she wants to look, but our way of looking at a female body has still not seemed to change very much. There is, as well, an ambivalent relationship towards nudity and sexuality in American society that, in an odd way, carries over into the realm of feminism. It is this conflict and ambivalence that I wish to address in my work.
Maria Petschnig