Please Help Yourself     > next
Video 2008. Color 15'



“I used to go to trials. Serial Mom ended that for me. Whenever I make a movie about one of my obsessions, it’s over: I don’t do it anymore. And I don’t go to trials anymore, because they recognize me now [...] I can’t be a voyeur anymore. That is the only bad thing about any kind of celebrity”.
John Waters

Inspired by director John Waters and the duality of women characters in film history, this work thematizes the role of popular women icons played in portraying violence featured in diverse media, such as movies, television, news media, etc.
In "Serial Mom" (1994) Kathleen Turner's fictional character portrays the perfect mother and housewife and her double life as a serial killer. Patty Hearst offers a real-life example of a glamorous socialite's life turned guerilla. Hearst also made appearance in film and television productions and several movies directed by John Waters, including "Serial Mom".
Along with the portrayal of violence in the media, with this work I aim to explore the different conceptions of violence. While some segments of medicine and psychology see female violence as a process resulting from humiliation, the media transforms psychological syndromes (Stockholm and Lima) into sensational headlines and in the voyeuristic images generated by surveillance cameras to be viewed by all. Paradoxically, violence is connected to humiliation and considered negative and at the same time, icons are/were created in the media by the phenomenon of violence as something glamorous.






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