Geiles Globales Gesicht (grand global masks)

An essentially untranslatable German term, “Geiles”, either grand or aroused by desire, has been coined by Susanne Junker for her photographic series “Geiles Globales Gesicht (Grand Global Mask).

12 images of the artist transformed after painstaking applications of facial paint confront spectators with a work constituent of anonymity, cultural associations and iconography as well as silent protest. In the traditions of Chinese Opera, female characters were exclusively portrayed by male performers, the masks and painted visage irrefutably linked to dramatic personae, and narrative discourse predictable and unwavering. With “Geiles Globales Gesicht” (Grand Global Masks), a seductive counterpoint is given: the performer is one female, not Chinese and therefor the symbolic reference of the masks sabotaged into the visual one of role-reversal auto-portraiture.

12 self-portraits, 40 cm x 60 cm, 80 cm x 120 cm, lambda print on metallic kodak paper, 2009.

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