1 min. excerpt
Born To Perform
A/USA, 2009, Super 8 transfer, silent, 20 min.
The first viewing of Maria Petschnig’s video Born to Perform exploits one’s voyeuristic desires; the viewer brashly assumes an imperative to reconstruct and reconcile the broken narrative suggested in the disarming contrast of familial and erotic imagery. Only after introspective consideration of the work, and perchance the opportunity to see Petschnig perform, that our hubris, fantasy, and the sadistic nature of our own gaze is revealed.
(…)
Throughout the duration of the 20-minute long video, Petschnig systematically shifts scopic modes. The erotic female body is diametrically opposed to religious processionals, and likewise the religious figures do not belong alongside the nude child. Though Petschnig is herself performing one of these stereotypes, role-playing the sexualized female body, ultimately she exposes the viewer, implicating us in the inescapable social mores and loaded subjectivity that accompanies the act of looking at other people.
(Candice Madey)