Maybe It’s Maybelline
Maybe It’s Maybelline (2011)
Participatory Durational Performance
Cotton Mill Studios, Oakland (CA)
Maybe it’s Maybeline performance at F3 at the Cotton Mill.
For this performance, I was suspended from a 30′ truss and bound in a shibari to render the body immobile with exception to one free hand. Placed below me was an assortment of make up: lipstick, eye shadow, etc. donated by others or from my own collection which I silently instructed the audience to use to “make me pretty” by writing these words in red lipstick across my flesh. My entire body was used as a canvas for this painting which lasted for half an hour as the audience made me up from head to toe. Below me, an assistant laid down 30 4″ x 4″ canvases in the shape of a human body. I then wrote “shoot me” across my arm in red lipstick. The audience was handed squirt guns filled with a mixture of water and make up remover. They aimed and fired. Make up drizzled on to the canvases creating a subtle, ghostly impression of colors and textures.
Performance at F3 at the Cotton Mill.
Ingredients: shibari (rope), makeup, more makeup, squirt guns, 30 count 4″ x 4″ canvases in the shape of a body, 30′ lighting rig, audience participation.