Glass Ceiling (2014)
The general approach to the work is a notion of the ‘glass ceilings’ as a performance piece which comments on failure as a means of social and personal function.
The glass ceiling metaphor was founded in the early 1980s and is usually used to describe invisible barriers (“glass”) through which women can see elite positions but cannot reach them (“ceiling”). In contemporary society- the difference is we know the barriers are there, we can measure them down to a data set and classify their sizes, we use metrics and percentages to talk about them. The glass ceiling is a barrier so subtle and so ingrained, it becomes transparent, “Those who do not move do not feel their chains.”
In the documentation and the finished pieces, I utilize bullet proof glass panes, and approach them with different methods of breaking them utilized by the modern female: the kiss plays with the notion of using femininity and the female figure, as defined by the notion of the ‘female artist’ – using my body, enhancing my face, using the lips, nice filters, a selfie like point of view, marks are left but there is no damage. It is a node to a frustration toward the women of the post-internet movement who often rely on their physical appearance as a mode of output.Throwing Rocks is about being a women criticizing the very culture I depend on- so I lose again. The last piece Cracked I used a piece of cement which I continually used in different ways (dropping, throwing, as a hammer) until I was able to get the glass to crack, at the same time I am bleeding and injured by the end- – the catch is, the actual crack, ‘a success’ , is not shown in the footage, as a comment on the secretive and competitive nature of successful women, who often break themselves in the process of winning. In the final piece- the end result– its broken, but we do not know how.
(Text by Addie Wagenknecht)