LIPSTICK

LIPSTICK

Original Colour Analog film / print 1995

performance for camera self portrait 1995 taken in my social housing flat Newcastle

I've created my own world, in which my reflection sometimes hurts"

in my photographic work and self portraits I often use the mirror and my reflection. Here's a work I did around 1995. In my housing association flat in Newcastle. Most of my life l've not had a studio and worked within the domestic environment of my home. I would play out performances around gender and my identity within this safe space. This Diptych shows me putting on lipstick.

As a butch dyke l've never been one to wear make up and at times it's been used as violence towards me.

Society Tells us what femininity and masculinity is and the binary of it, this act feels like dragging up "trying to fit in " to me feels hostile and unnatural. The act of putting on lipstick repulses me. Alongside putting on the lipstick l'm also wearing a bra, which I don't wear a piece of clothing which l've never felt comfortable in.