I was googling Cindy Sherman when I came across the work of Muliarchyk, a fashion model and artist who uses the world of high-priced fashion and photography in her performances. This link will take you to an article that compares her to Sherman, who also performs through staged photography and assumes different characters. I am not sure if Muliarchyk’s work is critical of the systems it uses, which are the worlds of fashion and beauty. Even if dressing up in expensive clothes is used as critique, it still glorifies that superficial act and the things it is criticizing. IN my last permformance I dressed as this mysterious overcoated pink character. Obviously very far from fashion modeling, I still felt a little like the performance put an emphasis on looking cute, and a good deal of the preparation involved putting together a little outfit and being concerned with physical appearance. I guess this may be an unavoidable aspect of performance art- when does playing a role become synonamous with being the thing itself, if only for the duration of the performance? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/style/tmagazine/t_w_1546_1547_talk_muliarchyk_.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
