Tattoed plant

Anthuriums, printed photos and

sculptural flower pots

2019


In Guǎnlǐ de shǒu. The managed hand (2018-2020) the artist start point is the eponymous book by Miliann Kang (2008), in which the author conducts a detailed analysis of the performativity of work associated with the provision of services related to the body. Through a survey carried out in beauty salons in three specific districts of New York that Kang classifies as “Uptown nails”, “Crosstown nails” and “Downtown nails” - which present well-differentiated social classes - the sociologist introduces the beauty salon as a place where categories of gender, race and class are violently affected.


María Alcaide approaches the nail salon to keep talking about labour, more specifically body work, which involves both physical effort and emotional performance. In this sense, her experience as a saleswoman is closely linked to Kang’s discoveries concerning the demand for bodywork and its relationship to class and gender. In this pyramid of feminized work, there is always women who take care of others, but the poor women have to work also to take care of other women -those who are placed above them on the scale of privileges.

The managed hand

Video installation

Metal structure with wheels, textile

(stretch, tulle), and pierced nails.

200x250x40 cms

single channel video. color. sound.

11'19''

2019


The managed hand

single channel video. color. sound.

11'19''

2019

In this project, she turns the gallery into a kind of beauty salon to talk about the emotional work linked to the provision of services related to the body. In this way, certain mechanisms of privilege and oppression that take place in these beauty salons are highlighted.



Hands that work other hands, hands that touch but never get affected: the managed hands.

Punto Perfecto

video installation

Intervened manicure chairs found in a

real beauty center, embroidered silk, nail

polish, screen.

single channel. color. sound. 7’10’’

only one copy

2019

In the video, the artist spends the little production budget provided by an artist residency to take care of herself (beauty treatments). Precariousness and working conditions are put on the -manicure- table.

Punto perfecto

video instllation

2019

Europa nails (they fall down when you least expect it)

Photography

23 x 33 x 2,5 cms

2019

Marxism removal

Photography

23 x 33 x 2,5 cms

2019