Based on observations of the city’s carnival culture—the largest carnival in the country, which takes place in winter—of plush animal costumes, and of the layers of “skins” worn by revelers, Von Ha collects fabrics from the city’s thrift stores, gathering remnants of this carnival skin. At the same time, the small city also offers commercial establishments specializing in hair removal, “Brazilian wax”—that is, in the Brazilian style. Yet another layer of Brazilian skin present in the city: skins torn off and put back on, bodies redesigned, bodies covered in plush, the skins of the city, graffiti and signage, the many and varied layers that carnival offers to those who experience it—layers of desire and of being able to be different from who one is in everyday life.

 

By painting a room green with chroma key, the entire installation is transformed into a film set, and the visitor becomes a co-author by using the Chroma-Ha Instagram effect. The filter allows the green background to be replaced by other images via a QR code on the visitor’s mobile phone. Everything can float, change places, and take on other meanings.

 

The green background contrasts with a replica of Stanley Kubrick’s black monolith (2001: A Space Odyssey), with two “dick baby bottles,” one in bronze and the other in ceramic featuring Portuguese tile motifs, and a piece of a zebra costume thrown on the floor.

 

The monolith also contains the ambiguity of meanings inherent in Von Ha’s artistic practice, by “giving this hint of what that environment is, and what it can become (…) starting from its own black monolith. When you use the app and look at it, there are two monoliths conversing and creating another world.”

 

By relating themes such as European cultural heritage and the models established by power structures and subjected to popular critique, the artist connects popular culture with issues of gender and identity. “The body is a political territory where changes and transitions occur in relation to the Other. The body is thus the site of affirmation, celebration, and camouflage.”