everyone is a girl
A girl lies down strategically on her bed next to her angelic stuffed bunny, her outfit matches both the bedsheets and the curtains. On the bedside table there is a pack of Marlboro Red, a pile of sad girl fiction books, an empty Smirnoff bottle for a candle holder, some loose sleeping pills and a few shades of pink and red lip gloss. The bedroom is wrapped in floral faded wallpaper, a cheap material once used to brighten up dark rooms which has now lived long enough to mystically haunt it. This space is either real or imaginary, manifested through 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝒾𝓃𝓈𝓅𝑜 mood boards and girlblogger 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝐼 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 memes. This space is a liminal space, in between past and present, private and public, authenticity and performance.
Whilst our phones turn our walls into glass our most sacred spaces become public surfaces to display our identities. In the mother-land of content creation personal rituals of consumption and soul searching are curated into consumable goods, made available to the audience’s gaze. So while we shop around for a 𝓬𝓸𝓻𝓮 that will fill our hearts it’s crucial to think about the set where it all plays out, one that helps the public get the narrative, that highlights our most complex tortured sexy little selves. Here the bedroom is a stage to be performed, and we are all the main characters.
As for the one described above, it’s the perfect set for the performance of detachment, for the disaffected frown selfies layered with Fiona Apple songs. It’s a romanticised site for the white women’s neurosis, reconfigured to the image of the characters that came before her, adorned with symbols of anguished womanhood awaiting to be understood. I keep thinking about Francesca Woodman’s photographs, self portraits where she is often absorbed by the space that surrounds her, by antique furniture and decaying walls. When asked about her work she said: 𝒜𝓂 𝐼 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒾𝒸𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒? 𝒜𝓂 𝐼 𝑔𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓇 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒾𝓉? 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒷𝑒 𝒶 𝑔𝒽𝑜𝓈𝓉, 𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓂𝒶𝓁 𝑜𝓇 𝒶 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎, 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓇𝓃𝑒𝓇.
-Paloma Moniz