Everyday Makeup

Everyday Makeup

Everyday Makeup is about the ritual of ‘putting on a face’ every morning. For many women—and some men as the market tries to expand—makeup is an everyday activity, a necessity before leaving the house.

This performance dilates the experience of putting on makeup by applying a week’s worth in a single sitting on 14th Street in Manhattan. The performance takes approximately an hour, each ‘day’ being reminiscent of ‘five-minute makeup.’ Locating myself nearby various beauty salons, it almost appears as though I could be demonstrating products for sale, but quickly it becomes evident that something is awry. The piece condenses time and loops a typical morning together, in a seemingly endless cycle of putting on makeup—applied seven times, one layer on top of the other. Each ‘day’ begins afresh by covering my entire face with concealer. As the makeup gets caked on, my face slowly turns an absurd pink from the mixing cosmetics. Finally, all the makeup layers are stripped off tissue by tissue.

This performance was part of Art in Odd Places Festival: Model.

Photos and footage by Anushya Badrinath, Hilary Basing, Cylixe, Jessica Eis, Khanh Xiu Tran, and James Reddington.