“Are You Buying?” uses the lens of advertising to examine the ideas and expectations that Western society projects onto women. In this 30-minute multimedia solo performance, I transform myself into a fashion mannequin who dreams she has it all as she travels back in time through the pages of Vogue magazine: estates with lavish grounds, high-end furniture and appliances, handsome men at her beck and call. But the dream isn’t quite what it seems. The mannequin quickly realizes that she’s caught in a loop of desire and dissatisfaction, trapped in the magazine’s glossy ads.

To create the piece, I researched how women have been portrayed in advertisements throughout twentieth century US history, tracing women’s evolution from 1920s ingenue to 1990s sex object. “Are You Buying?” deconstructs the narrative of the idealized white female consumer that emerged from this research.

The performance is designed specifically for windowfront spaces. Audience members watch the performance through the windows from the sidewalk outside. To transform the space into a retail window come to life, I use custom software to combine live and pre-recorded video. Strange characters and objects from magazine advertisements layer over and dissolve into one another in the resulting video, projected at 8’ x 12’. I insert my body into this dream-like space, performing gestures also taken from these ads. Ian Hatcher’s humorous and ironic score, composed of clips from radio commercials, accompanies the performance.

Remixing imagery, poses, and sound from magazine and radio advertisements from the 1920s to the present, “Are You Buying?” links the evolution of capitalism and traditional gender roles throughout US history while questioning the role of personal agency in identity construction.