a misappropriation of singin' in the rain
2006, 2:34 (video, color, sound)
This video is an excerpt from the end of the movie musical “Singin’ In The Rain”. In this scene, a lip-syncing Hollywood starlet is exposed as a fraud when the curtain she is performing in front of is drawn aside to reveal the source of her beautiful singing voice, a mere chorus girl. In my presentation of this scene, all of the sound is replaced by my own dialogue and music. I play all of the characters, male and female, and further manipulate the end of the scene by having Gene Kelly divulge to the audience that the real star of the picture is Sarah Paul.

SARAH PAUL (US)

www.mostlymad.com

I am an American who is categorized as a bisexual woman, an obese woman, a manic depressive woman, a medicated woman. Though most of these categories are quite common in contemporary American society, they are considered marginal and stigmatic, far from ideal. Our pursuit of an elusive and ultimately constructed ideal plays a significant role in my work. Kaja Silverman states, "the subject who aspires to incarnate or embody the ideal most typically derives his or her definition of that ideal from normative representation." [1] It is this "normative representation" that I am attempting to challenge and subvert.

To confront this status quo, I use my Amazonian female body and powerful voice in multimedia performances that incorporate pop vocal melody, experimental electronic music, and constructed visual spectacle. My performances are designed to envelop the viewer, using sound, video projection, and live vocal and stage elements to both seduce and jar the audience. Admittedly dramatic, I aim for these live performances to elicit, within myself and my audience, the sensation of a point at which the real and the imagined come together. If I am able to communicate this surreal, uncanny state to the audience, I have succeeded. I intend for my audience to feel both discomfort and compassion as they observe my character's pain, leading them to identify with a subversive persona.