5DEE(D)S+1OWE 1999

In 5DEE(D)S + 1OWE the obsessive but impossible striving to fit the ideal of female beauty comes up once again. The series consists of photo-stills of a TV reality show in which mostly middle aged women and transvestites (again, one has to look close to see that they are transvestites) star in a staged Beauty contest. The images which are displayed consecutively as if to mimic the flow of the TV program are interrupted by the words: decision, desire, despair and destiny (the first two letters intentionally coincide with the first two letters of the artist’s first name to indicate Meimaroglou’s involvement with her subject) spelled out in bold letters against a brightly colored background. The work also criticizes the role of television in constructing identity and in cultivating false expectations. It therefore reflects on the all-pervasive role of the media which has been one of the strongest themes in the art and cultural theory of the past few decades.