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In this week's Playlist we present a selection of videos by our our members guest-selected by Claire Rongying Duan who's currently undertaking a Postgraduate Work Placement at Axisweb.


Laura O'Connor, What Women Want, 2015

What Women Want combines fetish and consumption. Commissioned for Valentines Day by transart Cavan, the work is a response to Groupon ads for valentines day products, specifically personalised M&M's.

Check out Laura's profile on Axisweb >


Natalie Ramus, It Doesn't Fit Anymore, 2016

This is a response to the various roles I play in my life as mother, wife and artist; and how they each create boundaries / tension with each other. I decided to wear my wedding dress as a symbol of the weight I carry when trying to be experimental and explorative in my art practise. The heavy wedding dress a symbol of the domestic goddess and subservient wife that I grew up to idolise through role play as a child. It is ironic that my wedding dress that I wore in 2007 is now two sizes too small; not only does the dress not fit, but I don't fit into the role that the cumbersome restrictive dress symbolises. The mental struggle becomes a physical one as I battle with the physicality of the dress and my body to attempt to demolish a tumble dryer (the "domestic goddess'" tool) with a sledge hammer (a "man's tool") that weighed 7lb (the weight of an average British baby).

Check out Natalie's profile on Axisweb >


Laura O'Connor, Dull, Limp, Lifeless, 2010-12

Dull, Limp, Lifeless is a 5 minute video projection in which a woman stares directly into the camera wearing a blonde wig while a fan blows
her hair around seductively. She is unable to stop the air from the fan causing her eyes to water and she subsequently looks as though she
is crying. Here the authenticity of the situation distorts the illusion of beauty and desire, and explores the line between representation and
reality in the media’s portrayal of the female body.

Check out Laura's profile on Axisweb >


Natalie Ramus, Made Up, 2016

I had been thinking about where we learn femininity and I remember as a teenager reading magazines like More magazine that gave tutorials on everything from how to wear your makeup to how to get and keep a boyfriend. I considered how this was now lost to the endless youtube tutorials- these have become the millennial's magazine. Initially the notion of the everyday person being in the picture opposed to the models of More magazine seems positive, but I can't help but see it as an encouragement to narcissistic behaviour. We are seeing ourselves through the lens and the screen more than ever. I performed the camera for just over 30 mins (the average time a woman spends putting make up on) putting lipstick on repeatedly. At first it looks normal, becomes quite sexual with the lipstick seeming quite phallic; it then goes on to become more obscene distorting the lips more and more.

Check out Natalie's profile on Axisweb >


More film and video works >