Papadimitriou’s seven film stills, complete with subtitles, hung on top of each other emulating filmic continuity, challenging the role of the artist and successfully playing with the viewer’s preconceived ideas on various categories: reality, truth, normality, masquerade. The stills come from an actual film in which the artist had a minor role. Wearing make-up (bright red lipstick, blush, tons of mascara) and with a hairdo and jewelry identifying her with a stereotype promoted in popular women’s magazines, the artist enacts her alter ego. We are not sure whether this suggests a hidden desire to be viewed in terms of a very particular, culturally derived femininity, or simply a buffoon’s gesture. “I wish my husband had taken me with him to see the world,” reads one of the subtitled phrases. Is the artist voicing contradictions between the real, the symbolic and the imaginary? (In real life she doesn’t wear much makeup, she has no husband, and travels alone.)

Helena Papadopoulos
Excerpts from “Works on Paper,” ARTI, 19, March-April, p. 174.