Parlor Talk - work in progress by Johanna Steindorf

As foreigners, immigrants, urban nomads and women, how do we negotiate personal space and how is this influenced by the circumstances we live in? In an attempt to create an approximation to these questions and to the participants, a situation was dislocated and recreated from a place regarded as a typically feminine domain in India (and other countries): the beauty parlor.

The title is a reference to both the conversations that form the basis of the audio work, as well as to the performance that was enacted during the exhibition at 1Shanthi Road gallery, in which individual participants received a manicure from the artist.

The performance and accompanying audio work "parlor talk" were developed in 2014 during the bangaloREsidency in Bangalore, India.