Pleasure to burn, 2012, HD video, Excerpt from (TRT: 10:16)
Four women perform different scenes suggestive of office work and power relations, such as an office manager directing her staff, using a script composed entirely from cigarette commercial slogans.
ABOUT Pleasure to burn
The set is based on cigarette packaging. The women perform and improvise using the slogans as their only language to communicate. Many of the commercials are taken from cigarette adverts with a female target market. A selection of adverts from this research archive was exhibited alongside the video.
TEXT SOURCE:
Newport cigarettes, Virginia Slims cigarettes, Max cigarettes, Chesterfield cigarettes
Ebony magazine, 2011
Life Magazine, 1994, 1977
Vogue, 1938.
PERFORMERS:
Danielle Dean, Stacia Hitt, Jasmine Hughes, Katelyn Reeves
PRODUCTION:
Spencer Holden, Johnathan Mahony – camera and sound recording.