Balázs Máté
Artist Feature
Every week an artist is featured whose single image was published by Der Greif. The Feature shows the image in the original context of the series.
Juno Calypso - Joyce II
Jul 01, 2015
I make self-portraits and I recently developed a character named Joyce. I build sets and create scenes for her; imaginary bedrooms in which I perform studies into modern rites of seduction and beauty, and the laboured construction of femininity.
Objects once perceived as radical, fun and nutritious – an electronic anti-wrinkle mask, computer equipment from the 1980s, baby oil, a tin of cold meat – have become joyless and oppressive.
Joyce appears alone, consumed by artifice. Her glazed appearance acting as a mirror to the exhaustion felt whilst bearing the dead weight of constructed femininity.
Artist Blog
The blog of Der Greif is written entirely by the artists who have been invited to doing an Artist-Feature. Every week, we have a different author.
Published in:
»Guest-Room Bruno Ceschel«
»Der Greif #8«
Slim-Gym
Jul 08, 2015 - Juno Calypso
‘She is guilty of transgression is she desecrates that beauty with impure substances, rich foods, cheap lotions. What is beautiful about her body does not belong to her but to God. But what is ugly is hers alone, proof of her sin, worthy of any abuse. She is to touch her skin reverently, as the “beauty” of a smooth youthful face is God-given. But she may wring, beat and electrocute her woman’s thighs, the proof of her prodigal ways. This prevents women from fully inhabiting the body, keeping us waiting for an apotheosis that will never arrive. It is meant to keep us from being at ease in the flesh or in the present, those two erotically and politically dangerous places for a woman to be; mourning the past and fearing the future, pacified. – Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth (1991:129) Today I wanted to share two new self-portraits, taken in my grandmother’s bathroom in Malta. On my face is a silicone sauna mask from Korean eBay, and the blue pads on my body are from a device called ‘the slim-gym’ found in a car boot sale in Kilburn. I sometimes think about making work without bizarre beauty devices, but they just keep inventing them.
Juno x www.junocalypso.com Instagram Twitter
The Honeymoon Suite
Jul 07, 2015 - Juno Calypso
In May this year I booked a room for one at a honeymoon hotel in Pennsylvania. I stayed for a week, leaving my room only for the free breakfast and dinner, trying not to make eye contact with the newlywed couples swaying and embracing around me. I didn’t have any plans for what I was going to do. The only things I’d prepared were a suitcase of bridal lingerie and a bottle of body paint. I thought it would be a good idea to paint myself green from head to toe and make a video of myself dancing in the bath like a seductive lizard. This was one of those rare occasions that an idea appears fully formed in your head and you owe it to your imagination to make it come to life. When I looked in the mirror I felt like a cross between Ms Argentina from Beetlejuice and the gangrene grandma from the bath scene in The Shining. After recording the video I ended up spending two hours on my hands and knees trying to scrub green paint from the rough bath enamel so this video doesn’t bring back great memories for me but I think you’ll enjoy it.
Juno x junocalypso.com Instagram Twitter
Seduction
- Juno Calypso
Joyce came into existence somewhat accidentally. As a young photographer I was enthralled by glossy images of women, and would persistently mimic this style without stopping to question it. Skin brushed, eyes heavy and lips parted – each subject possessed an identikit expression that seemed imperative to my work. This changed, unexpectedly; in the moment that I decided to use myself as a stand-in for a model I was due to photograph the following day. Here, a real shift took place. An initial moment of clowning around – pulling contorted faces, and disguising myself in fake teeth and glasses grew to be a critical performance. Joyce became a caricature of the ideal I had been perpetuating for so many years. She exposed the façade I had been lulled into, not only as a photographer, but as a young woman. As the character has developed, the gap between ‘her’ and myself has lessened; it is autobiography over pure fiction. Her facial demeanor is only a slight exaggeration of my own – through her I embrace my lazy eyes and drooping stupor, and employ them to mirror the exhaustion felt by women whilst bearing the dead weight of constructed femininity. To me, Joyce has become a methodical performance. Closing the bedroom door, clipping in artificial hair, coating my skin in exotic shades of shimmering beige – then photographing myself over and over until the image of perfection is finally accomplished. It is an exact manifestation of the ritual performed by myself and other women as we aim to transcend our bodies into the image haunting our mind of our better self. We see Joyce in the moments surrounding this ritual. The clench of her fist around the shutter release, and the loose ties of her dressing gown suggest that this is not the final production, but one of many tests. We imagine that underneath her robe is an ensemble of perfectly arranged lingerie, and perhaps a well practiced smile ready to split through her weary exterior. Juno Calypso www.junocalypso.com Instagram Twitter
The Making of Joyce
Jul 02, 2015 - Juno Calypso
Hello I’m Juno Calypso. For the last four years I’ve been taking pictures of myself as a character named Joyce. I began in my Mum’s living room, where I staged a birthday party and jumped out of a giant cake. Since then I’ve been taking photographs of Joyce wherever I can. My grandmas house in Malta, an ex boyfriends parent’s bedroom, private rooms found on Airbnb, and my most recent and most awkward – a Honeymoon Hotel in Pennsylvania. From the beginning I’ve always filmed myself while taking these pictures. When you’re alone there’s no one to tell you which angle looks good so instead I have to film myself writhing around for five minutes and see what comes out. After three years I realised that alongside producing photographs, I had also accumulated hours of slightly embarrassing footage. Last year I took my favourite bits and put them all together into a film called ‘The Making of Joyce’.
I hope you enjoy. Juno x Juno Calypso: Artist of the Day Thursday 2nd July, 11am – 7pm Flowers Gallery, London W1S 3LZ Juno Calypso in conversation with Tom Hunter Thursday 2nd July at 4pm rsvp@flowersgallery.com Solo show: Thursday 2nd July Group show: Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th July.
