"In my performances I assume various iconic personae, creatures who are always situated as trapped, or on the edge of breaking down. They are not characters but personae, aspects of myself. I disappear as they emerge."(Anita Ponton)
The isolated figure of the lone female is central to Anita Ponton’s live performances that address such issues as violence, power and silence.
In Still, the performer examines feminine representation through a series of iconic poses, inspired by mythic, cinematic and actual ideals. Nailed to the wall by her hair for up to two hours, Ponton tests both the endurance of the artist’s body and the extent to which a performance can be stretched, placing assumptions about the female body under scrutiny and posing awkward questions, such as: Can the ironic adoption of conventional feminine poses trouble widely held ideas about how a woman should appear in public, and can her avowed narcissism be used creatively?
Milijana Babić
