Thank You For Visiting

Zulfa Armeth

@_zu1fa

All characters in this creative project are not afforded personhood, they assume subject status and exist for the sake of bureaucracy and capitalist intent. They are complexly curated , engaging with the idea of ‘mask’ in an introspective manner.

The female secretary enacts violence upon the masked characters through legality , in a brazen manner. This can be read through a radical mainstream feminism lens of empowerment politics, however through addressing the problemacy of capitalist structures she is a subject of bureaucracy whilst simultaneously becoming the enforcing hand of it.

The character that wears a physical white mask can be read as a commentary on racialized beauty standards or enacting intentional self-preservation.

The character that has red stickers over her body , enacts a second skin which becomes a mask and can be read as a hinderance to being truly perceived.

The bride character references a canon of cinema in which she is perceived as anything from an emblem of ‘the perfect woman’ to a runaway bride in need of moral repercussions.

The character that wears a dressing gown can be read as disengaged from the masquerade of performing. But the question arises, who are you when no one is prescribing you who to be?

The characters breaking free of this moment of bureaucratic enforcement, by engaging in dance, are liberated of the mask and become humanised.

The concept of mask extends beyond corporeal self to the surrealist envelope object , in which there is an absence of body but presence of self - kiss mark , wine stains […]

In relation to the bureaucratic system , the title ‘Thank You for Visiting’ , positions the audience as victim to institution. It enacts an implicit reminder that they were permitted into the gallery space and within that space there is a need to follow specific modes of behaviour – wear an ascribed mask.