Mirror Room
A pink plastic room stands in the performance space. It has a golden, one-way mirror set into each side: four women are shut inside it. The performance begins with the women decorating the interior of the room with beauty paraphernalia and reference materials. As the performance progresses, the natural light dims, an electric light is switched on inside the room and the cubic room stands glowing. The one-way effect of the mirrors is reversed: the audience has a clear view of the performers and the inside of the room. Yet, the performers are now only able to see themselves in the mirrors as they crane their necks towards their reflections and begin to change their appearance.
Mirror Room aims to investigate contrasting notions of beauty, desire, femininity and self-determination, as the audience catches a voyeuristic peep at what lies within the glowing pink box.
Beauty Suit Team is a collective of women artists based in Thailand; three members will be present for the NRLA performance and forum.
Katherine Olston graduated with a BA (Hons) in Sculpture, Installation and Performance from Sydney College of the Arts in 1998. She received an Asialink Performing Arts Residency grant in 2003 to develop the collaborative performance installation Beauty Suit at Chiang Mai University Art Museum and has since been based in Thailand. Estelle Cohenny, born in France, graduated from the University of Central England in Textiles. Since 1997 she has been based in Chiang Mai, and has been exhibiting her work in Thailand since 2001. She is currently a coordinator of Studio Xang for Migrant Children, an art and child development project on the Thai-Burma border. Boondarik Sukhaboon graduated in drama at Thammasat University, Bangkok in 1997. Since then she has taught drama and art to children as an educational tool as a way to explore social issues. She has been involved in various community theatre projects as both performer and organizer, including The Mekong Project Artists Residency Program: Thailand.