THERE’S GLITTER IN MY SOUP!
Portrait Series Photoshoot, Lille, 14/8/2019
Archival tape, makeup, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, feathers, moth wings, butterfly wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
The birth of this idea to remove my make-up with adhesive tape came at an elegant museum supper one night 10 years ago, with an accusing glare followed by a rebuke from across the dinner table: ‘There’s glitter in my soup!’
I had just finished performing. I was embarrassed. In my bag, I had a roll of duct tape, and I used it there and then to remove the glittered make-up from my face. It was efficient.I apply my make-up for hours with a pathological dose of patience and a plethora of glue. The breakdown of it this way is sudden and full of sensation. Removing the make-up leaves me feeling pulled and slapped and plucked and stripped. It is strange to make a work by unmaking one.
There is a lot of discomfort and sometimes some pain in each of these self-portraits, but there is also a consoling serenity born of art lived out and performance accomplished … Camouflage cream, powder, glitter, lipstick, sweat, DNA, some skin cells … and a whole lot of skill and patience is embedded in what we are looking at – 50 years and three hours of savoir faire.
The destruction of the artwork is in itself the creation of a new one. The doing is in the undoing … and vice versa. It’s not a mask, it’s an interface.
Steven Cohen
Portrait Series Photoshoot, Lille, 15/8/2019
Archival tape, makeup, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, synthetic beads, feathers
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Workshop, Final Presentation, Vienna, 10/8/2019
Archival tape, makeup, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, moth wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Make-up resarch, Lille, 26/10/2019
Archival tape, mke-up, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, bindi, butterfly wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
‘put your heart under your feet… and walk!’, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 20/9/2019
Archival tape, make-up, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, bindi, feathers, moth wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Make-up research, Lille, 25/10/2019
Archival tape, make-up, glitter, bindi, synthetic eyelashes, butterfly wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Make-up research, Lille, 27/10/2019
Rachival tape, make-up, glitter, bindi, synthetic eyelashes, butterfly wings, moth wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Make-up research, Lille, 24/10/2019
Archival tape, make-up, glitter, bindi, synthetic eyelashes, butterfly wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Taste, Vienna, 30/7/2019
Archival tape, make-up, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, synthetic beads, feathers, bindi
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Portrait Series Photoshoot, Lille, 14/8/2019
Archival tape, make-up, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, synthetic beads, feathers, moth wings, butterfly wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
Impulstanz Closing Press Conference, Vienna, 7/8/2019
Archival tape, make-up, glitter, synthetic eyelashes, synthetic beads, feathers, moth wings, butterfly wings
64 x 64cm
[Stevenson Gallery] 💬
STEVENSON GALLERY
46 7th Ave | Parktown North | Johannesburg | 2193 | Afrique du Sud
STEVEN COHEN COMPANY
24 rue Succursale | 33000 Bordeaux | France
Samuel Mateu
Administration | +33(0)6.27.72.32.88
production[@]steven-cohen.com