Pipilotti Rist - Nice to be me

Elizabeth Charlotte Rist better known as (Pipilotti Rist) studied at “The School of Design” in Basel. Her works generally deal with issues related to gender, sexuality, and the human body. In “Nice to be me, Flatten’. She is dealing with ideal that can be warped by the media and to and extent she is toying with endurance in how she is pressing her face, quite hardly against this panel and stretching her skin and lips. This endurance she is engaged in could portray the youth that are being affected by this media purge, of being beautiful and how this must be obtained by the use of make-up and being beautiful, and their fight with these popular myths.

In this video of Pipilotti Rist, she is engaging the viewer in a playful and provocative manner. She is rubbing her face, which is covered in make-up against this piece of glass that we can see through. She is distorting her face and sculpting different forms with each varying movement. As she moves her face seemingly a layer of make-up is coming off and she is reveling her “true” self.

The affect of today’s media can be quite powerful on women in today’s society. Pipilotti is resisting that push by the media in a way that is abstract and differing from other art forms. Some outsiders try to argue, and bring up the never ending battle of “what is art?” or just stating that this is not art. This is in Rist’s favor because with each argument being made she is extending her horizons and ideas.