Diva

Back in 1998 I created a photographic series comprised of 20 female friends wearing the same red-haired wig, which I occasionally worn going out or strolling the streets in New York City. I was not only exploring the city, but also myself looking for possibilities and identities within this anonymous space. Wearing the wig made me not only look differently but also changed my perception through people looking at me in curious ways. Asking my friends to pose with the wig gave the whole project yet another touch and let me look at them the same way I was scrutinized by others. They indeed seemed to become another person just by wearing this hair. Our conversations drifted into different directions than usual and the mutual observations were fruitful on both sides. Almost 20 years later I altered the photographs (which back then I had developed and printed myself)using collage and paint techniques to change my Divas into anonymous portraits, aliens made of photoshoped parts from women's magazines, transforming them into manipulated objects, partly molested and fingered, sometimes at ease or touched gently. I was and still am testing different qualities of identification and relationship with this work and since change is inevitable I am curious how I will approach the subject ten years from now.