Johanna Winters

My current work combines video, sculptural props and works on paper to consider the condition of a puppet-protagonist who performs her sensuality for the camera. In a two-channel video at the center of the work, the puppet readies for a possible encounter with an imagined romantic interest. She doubles as both hero and buffoon while engaging in a series of tenderly erotic actions. I manifest as the protagonist’s embodied chaperone as she confronts the persistent disappointment and humor of a body approaching middle age. Her particular surroundings – a bedroom, an empty fountain, a motel suite – become the protagonist’s staging grounds in a rehearsal for being desired.

Perhaps we recognize ourselves in this self-conscious being. Writer and critic Andrea Long Chu says “to be female is to be compromised by what you think other people want and what they actually want.” In my work I propose an alternative narrative in which longing and embarrassment demand to be witnessed. The puppet costume that I wear in the videos becomes a protective barrier between myself, the protagonist, and the audience, and invokes the awareness of living in a fallible body. In my work the protagonist is a proxy for our human desire to be regarded as sensually viable beings, even if no one is looking.