With SWEAT (2017), I set out to create a parody of the exhibition opening, approaching it in a self-referential way and staging it as a form of social theatre. Interrogating the normative female body in celebrity culture as decor or display, I began to draw parallels to how art is presented in the Modernist white cube—exploring relationships between self-design and exhibition-making, looking at women and looking at art. This work marked the beginning of my ongoing interest in the white cube as a body, which has since become central to my practice.

I view popular culture as a feminized “Other”, often rejected as frivolous, emotional and shallow and positioned as the antagonist to a masculine Modernist canon.

The installation featured textile works that referenced both abstract painting, textile elements drawn from interior design and fashion, alongside wall pieces resembling moles or pieces of jewellery. As part of the work, I invited three actresses to attend the opening as if they were high school friends of mine. Their outfits echoed the artworks, their behaviour subtly mirrored that of the other visitors, and as the evening progressed, they gradually grew bored—at my request. In doing so, they turned the audience into unwitting co-performers, transforming the exhibition into a social stage and the body into a decor. With these elements, I wanted to confront those with preconceived ideas and mirror the unspoken codes of art-scène decorum—dressed in drag. Eventually I aimed to question the gendered history of abstraction and the adorned feminine body.

Because I didn’t announce the presence of the actresses as a performance I didn’t want to film during the opening as it would place too much attention on them. The footage you see here was made before the opening.

This project is made possible with a generous support of AFK, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst