enough

With her latest work, Lisa Großkopf continues a tradition within performance art with very few means of production – a camera and the artist’s body. Self-harm in front of the mirror of the video device also has a rich history within feminist art, whether to overcome or cover up a trauma, or to illustrate a social constraint. The performance artist impressively stages a burdensome dogma for functioning women in our competitive society: Believe in yourself, and you can achieve anything!

Like a soldier in extreme training, Lisa Großkopf repeats autosuggestive formulas to change her attitude towards herself, in order to improve it, of course. She continually recites the phrases “I am good the way I am. I love myself the way I am. I am perfect the way I am …”, even though the affirmative phrases seem hypocritical and absurd the longer that they are repeated. The concept of healthy self-love turns into a compulsion to think positively.

Equally compulsively, she also abuses her face with a pore cleaner, a skin care device that is supposed to be used to remove blackheads. In enough, Lisa Großkopf does not cleanse her skin, but tortures it at the highest suction level with the same consistency and persistence as her autosuggestion. Her face increasingly turns dark red, caused by skin bleeding, and stands as evidence of deliberate disfigurement. And as with some of her famous predecessors such as Marina Abramovic, Orlan, and Martha Wilson, the sight of the self-inflicted abuse has a long-lasting effect. (Brigitta Burger-Utzer)

Translation: John Wojtowicz