HANGISI

Donna Huanca
HANGISI
2017
285.0 x 190.0 cm
oil, acrylic and pigment on digital print

A Bolivian-American artist Donna Huanca explores the human body and its relationship to space and identity through works of installation or performance using bodies as media. She also paints with the same pigments that are attached directly onto the skin within the performance on the premise that makeup is synonymous with painting as the relationship of cosmetic to the body is equivalent to that of the paint to the canvas.

The painting with its striking bright blue is titled HANGISI after the name of the brand series of gorgeous pumps. Exposing the physicality of the body, Huanca at the same time invites us to think about the skins we are born with, the body and the space that the skin defines, and the boundaries between oneself and others that it distincts through her motif of what we wear. You can see the premise that the act of makeup and decoration is a social activity which assumes a relationship with others and the external world on the background of her theme.

Currently based in Berlin, her art is typically peopled with performers, adorned in various shades of body paint who move through installations that combine painting, sculpture, sound and stagecraft.

(Commentary & Translation: Tomoya Iwata)