7 STORIES OF PORTUGUESE WOMEN

The video installation is based on portuguese women from past and present, namely: Cecília; Mariana Alcoforado; Maria Velho da Costa, Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria Teresa Horta; Ana de Castro Osório; Lisete Rosa Moreira; Clara Santos Costa; Adília Lopes. I want to pay tribute and remembering them, while playing with codes of gender identification, social discrimination, imposed sex roles, oppressive attitudes towards women and stressing women's positive and creative reactions to these social constraints. In my art work I often contrast two types of discourses:
i) the original narrative in which the heroines, puppets or/and people, represent the dichotomous polarization of the feminine condition, sometimes passive, defenceless, and submissive, sometimes cruel like witches, evil stepmothers, and gossiping women;
ii) a parodic narrative that performatively mimics gender stereotypes and questions and critiques the original texts. The scenes are made with food, dolls, toys, miniature furniture, an animated doll and a woman doing maintenance activities at home. The fish are the symbol of the patriarchal male, petrified in his privileges, passively watching women taking care of him.
In conceptualising this videoart installation, presented at the RCA, 2nd Year Degree Show, London, UK, 1997, I had as tutors the artists Susan Hiller, Tracey Emin, Al Rees and John Stezaker. The photograph series The Primeval Fabricator was an installation related to my own troubling feelings about motherhood.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

– Seven Stories of Portuguese Women, 1998, video 'loop' (10:00): color, sound, HD (PAL).
– 7 portable DVD player HDTV (PAL), LCD 10.2"/ 26 cm.
– 1 rope with 250 cm.
– 140 photographs/video frames with 8,5 (W) x 7 (H) cm, printed on 350g matte paper.
– 1 white panel with 2 (W) x 200 (H) x 200 (L) cm, with 7 rectangular holes with format of a screen size of 26 cm ⌀.
– 1 stool or pillar with c. 140 (H) cm.
– Medium brightness.
– The Primeval Fabricator, 1998, installation photographs, various dimensions, dolls and magazine images collage.