Public performance and video
3 min 15 sec
2002

Dressed in a business suit, I performed “striptease” pole tricks almost directly underneath the Charles Schwab marquee that continually flashes the “market news”. At the end of this lunchtime hour, I sold Polaroid’s of the performance to passersby. When finished, I picked up my briefcase and disappeared into the foot traffic.

This was the first in a body of work about the conflict apparent in the making public of “"naked"” bodies in pornography but “"nude figures" in art, illicit” sexual desires in the sex industry but “legitimate” fantasies or artistic creations in the art world, and “aberrant” sexual bodies in the sex industry but “normalized” sexual bodies in the corporate world of advertising. These internal conflicts instigated a process of questioning the value and legitimacy given to certain kinds of "work" over others. I am interested in these struggles for legitimacy and how they are played out socially, culturally and economically.

("Fille Publique" is defined by the 19th century discourse which positioned the femme, or private, family woman in opposition to the fille, any woman in the public sphere; available for sexual use (prostitute).)