Stephanie Dodes

Bio

Stephanie Dodes is a Post-Baccalaureate “New Genres” student at San Francisco Art Institute. Her work deals with socially constructed ideas of “masculinity” and “femininity”. She is interested in the exploitation and vulnerability of women and the obsession with beauty in our culture. She moved here from New York City in August and has been in a few group shows in Brooklyn, most recently at Blank Space. She plans on starting her MFA in the fall of 2008.

Statement

“Perfect Body” is a gender-based performance that cuts across class, addresses ethical issues and deals with the media as a source of power that normalizes society. I performed “Perfect Body” at San Francisco Art Institute in September 2007. The audience was given a sheet of instructions outside of the installation room, stating that they had to put on the given latex gloves and medical masks in order to enter the space. They were also instructed to make incision marks on the body where it needed “improvement.” In addition to this, they were given a time restriction; they had to finish making their incision marks by the time the song, Close to You by the Carpenters had finished. The song used in this context creates juxtaposition because of its romanticized lyrics and the significance of Karen Carpenter's death from anorexia in 1983. I created a sculptural interpretation of a hospital gurney by covering a table with aluminum foil. When the audience entered the room I was laying on the “gurney” naked, vulnerable, and completely passive. The actions of different audience members suggest a variety of responses: some hang back while many draw eagerly on the body. Viewers of the tape may compare the “perfection” of the audience bodies with their implied critique of the subject body, observing in action the tangle of conflicted attitudes at work in the room. Perfect Body is an oxymoron because in reality there is no perfection, only failure to achieve it. The cosmetic surgery industry is constantly creating new procedures to fix new flaws, raising the stakes for informed recipients of plastic surgery, while also working to broaden the pool of consumers itself. Disturbing television shows such as Extreme Makeover, The Swan, and MTV's I Want A Famous Face work to further normalize beauty ideals. By challenging viewers to reveal and act on their physical ideals, “Perfect Body” demonstrates the way in which the cultural pressures of what is considered “normal” control our existence and thus render us docile bodies.