Pick a girl!
Performance space, Sydney Biennale 08.06.2006

videostill, camera Abdilla Bacon

For the 2006 Biennale Kovylina's initial proposal Boxing, which involved the staging of a boxing match where audience volunteers were encouraged to fight with the artist, has been cancelled due to legal concerns. Kovylina is currently in the process of developing a new proposal for her June performance. It is likely she will perform Pick a girl! a 2005 work where the artist pins to her skin a number of cut-outs of naked women. As explained on Kovylina's web site, 'in Russian, the expression snimat devoychku means to pick up (i.e. to hire) a prostitute, while the verb snimat also means to pick off or to remove.' Kovylina invites members of the audience to come and unpin a woman from her skin and discard her. Inspired by Yoko Ono's famous performance Cut Piece (first performed in 1964) where members of the audience were invited by Ono to cut a piece of her clothing away, Pick a girl! makes a broad comment on the politicization of women's bodies with particular reference to the experience of women in Russia.