Title after Oscar Wilde

Floor made of 99 vinyl tiles mounted on wood, photographs from the 50s and 60s (from the ‘Social’ sections of Mexican newspaper archives, now sold to flea market vendors), photocopies, turpentine transfer

9’ x 11’ floor installation

Exhibition: MUCA Roma (Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte, Roma Neighbourhood), Mexico City

 

Interactive element: With proper fastening to the floor, people can remove their shoes and walk on this piece

 

On Sundays, hundreds of vendors set up in a large flee market called La Lagunilla (The Little Lagoon) in a Mexico City-neighbourhood known as Tepito. In the antique section, there’s a gentleman who buys newspapers’ defunct photographic archives, especially those from the “Social” sections. Looking at the photographs from the 50s and 60s, the gorgeous women sported bobs and beehives, black eyeliner and off-the-shoulder taffeta. There were no names noted on the back: these posing women remained unidentified. I would return each week to purchase more. These photographs were displayed in the market on a piece of fabric laid on the ground, so I began working with vinyl tiles as a floor surface that alludes to the home. High-society is brought to the ground, on vinyl surfaces common to middle-class homes. The women’s portraits are poised in the centre of Victorian decorative designs so they become nameless embellishments adorning a flat and functional surface.