Ang, Sookoon b. 1977 / Exorcise Me (IX)
about this work
Exorcise Me is a photography, videography and live performance project addressing coming-of-age anxiety, teenage alienation and the confusing phase between childhood & adulthood. The title, Exorcise Me speaks about the unease within one’s own skin and the yearning to get rid of new-fangled fears and unfamiliar emotions. It is also about the seeding of love within a teenager’s heart, and like Balthus, recognizes the discomforting facts of teenager’s sexuality. 
The project entail a class of schoolgirls in their school uniforms with skull makeup painted on their faces. These schoolgirls pose in the tradition of Balthus’ paintings of girls— Balthus’ girls appear as languid, coquettish & self absorbed figures that are immersed inside their interior worlds within a familiar setting. Exorcise Me schoolgirls dawdle in school gym & classrooms in similar languid, coquettish & self- absorbed manner.
The goth makeup, baby language, school setting and uniforms are juxtapositions of reality and fiction, interior work brought out to the exterior. Exorcise Me also speaks about existential anxiety, which began in adolescenthood and persists through adulthood.

Sookoon Ang (b. 1977, Singapore)

Exorcise Me (IX), 2013

Photograph
1/3
80 x 120 cm
31 1/2 x 47 1/4 in.
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist Current Location:
UK - London - Brinks PhotographSouth Asia

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