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Marina Shaltout

She Who Turns Men to Cardboard

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About the artist

Marina Shaltout

With humor and plenty of camp, Marina Shaltout explores how gender norms affect the ways women are expected to perform femininity: through forced positivity, primping, and self-deprecation. Her work sheds light on the dual pressures of being seen as both virtuous and sinister, and the impossibility of performing both roles simultaneously.

For her "Snake Woman" series, Marina created four wall-mounted videos featuring the titular Snake Woman. We see Snake Woman gazing into a heart-shaped mirror (“She Who Turns Men To Cardboard”), shaving her legs in the aforementioned pink tub (“She Who Sheds Her Skin”), doing yoga in heels (“She Who Eats Her Own Tail”), and of course, eating apples (“She Who Eats Forbidden Apples”).
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