Five sixty-something female influencers stare into the bright ring light and camera of their own ‘beauty station’. In purple underwear they go through all kinds of beauty routines: brushing teeth with brown slime, waxing their legs. They make artificial body parts on a surgical table, a woman urinates into a Stanley Cup and then sits on a vibrating machine. Five screens, arranged in a circle just like the stations, immediately show how they share these as TikTok videos, complete with a monotone, whiny American voice-over reminiscent of the tradwife culture. Everything happens at the same time, the infinite walk by PISS POOL has started. Each woman moves on to the next station, in an increasingly surreal spectacle.
Anyone who knows the work of performance artists Suzan Boogaerdt and Bianca van der Schoot knows what to expect: an absurdist, body-horror-like sensation. With art installations and theater performances, Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot investigates the limits of humanity and takes a critical look at current visual culture. The duo previously did this with, for example Underworlds, a gateway experience (2023), about the TikTok trend of ‘reality-shift community’ in which people shift their consciousness to a different reality.
Pornification
In PISS POOLafter the namesake painting by Samantha Nye, the woman is once again central. It goes, just like with their breakthrough Bimbo (2012), about the objectification of women. This time they focus on the aging woman in a sterile TikTok house. In a world of strictly defined beauty ideals, in which youth and fertility are expected of women, the question arises where the line lies. The strangest skincare and beauty routines occur through algorithms, especially on TikTok and Instagram. Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot puts these striking phenomena under a magnifying glass and asks the question: are we going too far?
In between, the walk interrupted several times and the women come together. Even then they don’t speak a word, the voice-over and constructive music fill the room. The performers undergo medical procedures, such as receiving a syringe between the legs, after which they empty water into a container while squatting. The walk continues, now even dirtier, more absurd and with more body horror. The women eat organs, placenta-like masses and umbilical cords from metal containers, and bloodied dolls are dissected at the surgical craft table.
The absurdist scenes evoke an uncomfortable humor, but also show a sharp social criticism. While the voice-over claims: “Feminine care doesn’t have to be complicated”, increasingly bizarre routines gradually unfold on stage. They are desperate attempts to keep a grip on a body that never meets imposed beauty standards. So much happens that your eyes are short-lived. Afterwards, while the images reverberate, you would like to replay the hour. Boogaerdt/VanderSchoot thus exposes: in our digital world, beauty ideals, with eternal youth and fertility, strike as impossible demands, leading to madness.
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