Sanja Iveković, Make Up – Make Down, 1976
Sanja Iveković
Make Up – Make Down

Already in the 1970s Sanja Iveković (*1949, Croatia) dealt explicitly with feminist and political themes in her photographs, videos, collages, performances and public art. She explores the image of women in communist society, especially in former Yugoslavia. She uses her body and her own personal photographs to question constructions of femininity and identity in commercial advertising, magazines and film and exposes the ways in which mass-mediated imagery and normative codes of behaviour influence our everyday lives.

Make Up – Make Down is a film about the intimate ritual of putting on makeup. We see the upper body of a woman continually trying out new cosmetic products. Her face remains out of view and the camera focuses on her hands.

Courtesy Sanja Iveković

Document media
Video, colour, sound, 9:00 min

Issue date
1976

Tags
beauty, be-coming, femininity