The performance-based works by Chilean artist Claudia del Fierro suggest this approach, as evidenced by her exhibition at Optica that featured two short videos titled, respectively, Pol\u00edticamente Correcto\/Politically Correct<\/em> (2001) and Id\u00e9ntica<\/em> (2000).1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 1 <\/a> - This self-titled exhibition was presented in Optica\u2019s smaller gallery space from September 6 to October 11, 2008.<\/span> Pol\u00edticamente Correcto<\/em> is a looped three-minute projection that signals its populist principles from the very beginning. The work is introduced by a short text written by the artist explaining that the video was shot in an industrial neighbourhood in Santiago. Del Fierro writes, \u201cDay after day, over several weeks I attended lunch time at a garment factory, where a large number of women worked as sewing operators. . . . The little time for recreation and lunch allowed such limited interaction among them, that nobody ever noticed I did not work there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Composed of crudely shot footage of the entrance to this factory, the video features mostly women, dressed in plain smocks, walking in and out of this drab scene, apparently unaware of the camera. Images of the women at work or of their actual working conditions are not depicted. Rather, there is an emphasis on the sartorial. Alongside the video \u00adprojection in the gallery, del Fierro has installed a stack of neatly folded uniforms. They are material traces from her daily performances; they evoke the ubiquitous, instantly recognisable attire of those \u201cunsung heroes\u201d who keep society\u2019s wheels turning: nurses, butchers, and, in this case, factory workers. The cheerful colours of their dress\u2014a pastel palette of pink, yellow and blue\u2014belie what is surely the daily drudgery of their jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The viewer quickly begins to recognize the artist, not because del Fierro looks any different than the other women (she is after all dressed like them in a series of similarly shapeless frocks), but because she keeps turning up. To a soundtrack of nervous clicking sounds, del Fierro makes her point again and again: these women are undeservedly \u00adunrecognised \u00admembers of society; their uniform only renders them invisible and \u00adunderscores their lack of\u2014to borrow a term from Bourdieu\u2014\u201csocial \u00adcapital.\u201d In the video\u2019s final sequence, del Fierro strides back and forth down the street alone; she is apparently just another dowdy model on the dreary runway of these women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shot with a handheld camera, Id\u00e9ntica<\/em> (2000) shows del Fierro \u00adparticipating in a tacky television talent show. Disguise is once again of importance in this work, though here the artist is more obviously engaged in dress-up, acting out the role of small-town secretary with big-city dreams, a kind of Everywoman decked out in cheap suit, heels, and \u00adbouffant hairdo. The viewer (and TV audience) watch the deadpan del Fierro in a series of uncomfortable moments on stage that involve a tuneless duet with the show\u2019s host\u2014all fake smiles, smarmy charm, and besos<\/em>\u2014and the loss of the artist\u2019s ill-fitting wig. Unfortunately, it is hard to feel much for her principally, perhaps, because del Fierro plays a \u201ctype\u201d rather than a person. The viewer has no specific sense of her character\u2019s identity or her fellow contestants\u2019 respective stories, their reasons for participating, and\u2014at the risk of being maudlin\u2014their hopes and dreams, trials and tribulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, as deeply entrenched as we are now in the era of reality TV and American Idol<\/em> spin-offs, it remains difficult to feel much in response to del Fierro\u2019s (or her alternate persona\u2019s) public embarrassment. We are after all accustomed to the fact that many are willing to humiliate themselves for their fifteen minutes of fame and maybe some money; in any case, talent is not necessarily the point in such cases and applause is more or less guaranteed, the prevalent attitude being one of \u201cit\u2019s all in good fun.\u201d Finally, the fact that the video is shown on a small-screen television set\u2014mimicking the usual visual conditions of domestic viewing\u2014only serves in fact to augment the overall aura of ordinariness that envelops this work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In The Return of the <\/em>Real<\/em>,2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - Hal Foster, The Return of the Real: The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century<\/em>, 4th printing, 1996, 1st ed. (Cambridge, MA and London, England: MIT Press, 2001). <\/span> Hal Foster argues that the avant-garde has typically aligned itself, both artistically and politically, with \u00adsociety\u2019s \u00adso-called marginalised\u2014the proletariat, the impoverished, the \u00adpersecuted\u2014as a strategic anti-establishment, anti-bourgeois \u00adpositioning. In this light, what makes a work like Pol\u00edticamente Correcto<\/em> frustrating is the way it sidetracks its supposed subjects and focuses the viewer\u2019s gaze on the artist, specifically on her (embodied) commitment to the working class and women. And though this commitment in itself can be seen as \u00adadmirable, one never actually learns more about the \u00adpersonal or professional lives of her \u201ccolleagues.\u201d They literally remain in the background, mere proof of the reality of the situation depicted. The very act of walking in and out of the factory during the breaks in the workers\u2019 \u00adschedule serves more than anything to highlight del Fierro\u2019s freedom\u2014artistic and otherwise\u2014to do so. In effect, viewers are left with a sense of her audacity more than any knowledge of her subjects of study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If del Fierro\u2019s original objective was to bridge the gap between \u00adartist and \u201cother,\u201d it would seem that these two works have failed. Rather, she appears merely to reiterate the romantic vision of the artist as transgressor and free spirit, while coasting on the realities of those who lack the luxury to play out similar roles, or the liberty to come and go as they please. Her choice of titles, particularly in the case of Politically Correct<\/em>, suggests that del Fierro is aware of the potential pitfalls faced when making work that addresses political and social issues. Is this reflexivity enough however, when the work barely ventures beyond the artist\u2019s own performativity, remaining instead\u2014despite its doggedly unspectacular aesthetic\u2014within the realm of artistic gesture and authorship?<\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/66_AC05_Chan_delFierro_Politicamente-Correcto-2-scaled.jpg\")
Pol\u00edticamente Correcto<\/em>, 2001.
Photos: courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/66_AC05_Chan_delFierro_Politicamente-Correcto-scaled.jpg\")
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