"Blow Job" (performance and site responsive installation, mixed media) 2009
"Blow Job" (Red Edition) was commissioned by VeerSctichting and was installed and performed during the symposium "Alles Onder Controle?" in Pieterskerk, Leiden in October 2009. Photographs by Ernst van Deursen.
A boudoir like environment is installed in a given space, using real furniture, balloons, wallpaper, various props, books, liquor bottles, birdcage, feathers, fresh flowers, as well as the references to other art works and popular culture. For example, Andy Warhol’s “Blow Job” playing on a small screen is integrated in the interior, where framed photographs of Nan Goldin self-portrait, “ Misty and Jimmy in a taxi” and Tracy Emin’s “My Bed” are part of the decor. Dictionary definitions of words “Blow” and “Job” are framed and presented in the set up. Sexually suggestive atmosphere is created where the viewer is confronted by the performer’s opening line: “Hi there, would you like a blow job?” Ten “blow jobs” are on the menu to choose from (e.g. #2 pop, #7 rainbow, #8 vintage, # 9 semi-legal, etc.) to face up the expectations and enjoy the possible interpretations. Georgina performs the "Blow Job" of the choice of the "customer" and asks at the end of the act: “Are you satisfied?”
Original Polaroid pictures can be taken during the performance for a special price and an artist talk is available on demand after the performance. The work also functions as an installation when performance is not taking place.
Incorporating references to other artworks, especially where "the real" plays the key role (would it be a real sexual encounter or exposure of artist's autobiographical details) this work is obviously staged and performed by the character is questioning, "What is real?" Using satire, humour and mimicry the work mirrors certain values in our contemporary society and engages the public into the act to face up the expectations and the roles we perform daily, addressing issues of communication, language, sexuality and gender as well as touching on the issues such as what is the place of performance art n the postmodern context and the role of art and the artist in our contemporary society
"Blow Job" (Red Edition) was installed in a given space and performed during an exhibition/auction "Ongekend Young Masters@Auction" in Amsterdam, September 2009. Photographs by Sarah Benn.
A concept for this work originated on site, where the first (Pink Edition) was installed and performed by the character Georgina during a group exhibition "Hubris" in a former men's wear manufacturer's premises Vedea in Mechelen (Belgium) in June 2009.
© all images: Inga Cholmogorova