'object if i'

documentation of a performance held in NY on 23rd street at 10th avenue october 22nd 2009 from 6-8pm

'object if i'

Bon Jane

In performance piece 'object if i', artist Bon Jane invited street-side passerby's to photograph her inside a cardboard box in various stages of undress and self-adornment. The box emulated a small dressing room, just large enough so that the artist could pose and change wardrobe within a concealed, closed environment on the sidewalk in Manhattan. Viewers could only access the artist's private space via a Polaroid camera mounted to one side of the box. Bon Jane posed for and autographed each Polaroid taken during the performance.

As a space, the box references the domain of 'the gallery' with the artist performing for the duration of the 'opening', while also drawing reference from fashion photography, reality TV, and sex-working trades such as pornography and prostitution. The currency of the artist's suggestive nude body on film, which the viewer could purchase, shoot themselves, and then take home, plays on the power struggle between the viewer and the subject - or object. Bon Jane's work focuses on society's celebrated aspect of choosing to objectify oneself in exchange for the reward of money, attention, fame, or the cultural crown of beauty. Drawing heavily on pop-culture references such as reality based TV shows like 'America's Next Top Model', and voyeuristic internet enterprises such as 'Facebook', Jane works at amplifying the absurdity and desperation of seeking self-iconography through self-exploitation.

Having graduated from The Rietveld Academie in The Netherlands in 2007, this was the artist's premiere performance work in New York. The artists' work continues to focus on deconstructing the abject manufacturing of desire, dreams, hope, and fantasy within contemporary popular culture. Since moving to New York, Bon Jane has participated as a performer in sculptural installation 'VB64' for artist Vanessa Beecroft held at Deitch Projects in 2009, and in 2010 reperformed Marina Abramovic's 'Relation In Time' and 'Point of Contact' for Abramovic's historical retrospective, 'The Artist Is Present', at The Museum of Modern Art.