Participating Artists
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Nail Polish Tutorials, 2010 (installation view), video, without sound, courtesy of the artist
Yaima Carrazana
Six ironic initiation lessons by the young painter, under the guise of training videos are screened on six small screens: She paints her nails according to fathers of modernist painting, all of whom are men - John Armleder, Daniel Buren, Jasper Johns, Kazimir Malevich, Barnett Newman, and Frank Stella. The videos are filmed in the style of do-it-yourself, the likes of which can be found in abundance on YouTube. Each video begins with a Google search for a particular artist, a click on one of the images of his paintings and the reproduction of the painting on her nails. Step by step instructions appear on the screen. Paint your nails in the style of Malevich, Buren or Stella. The moment the modernist painting, a once-groundbreaking work admired to this day, becomes a decorative pattern on a young girl's nails, the boundaries between serious abstract painting and decoration, between high art and artifacts, conceptual and playful art, disintegrate.
Like many women artists, especially those who come from countries that are peripheral to the world's art centers, Yaima Carrazana (born in Cuba) also emphasizes her place in the art world, which cannot be taken for granted. In order for the canonical painting to be part of her artistic world, she turns it, no less, into a second skin, part of her body, yet simultaneously manipulates it by belittling and ridiculing it. You can't live with it, as it appears in the humorous videos, and you can't live without it.
Born in Cuba, 1981; lives and works in Amsterdam
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