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Dalia Smayze
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S usanne Wawra Lives and works in Dublin, Ireland
An artist's statement
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his series of videos looks at placing short song lyrics into a real life context. The chorusses of popular songs are spoken and the focus is on the mouth of the speaker. It invites the viewer to read the reenacted song lyrics closely or differently. The use of the mouth makes it close and personal, at times very intimate and adds a personalised interpretation of the spoken word.
The lyrics of German artist Marius Müller Westernhagen's “Sexy" are raunchy and suggestive. This is heightened by using mouths of mature women, challenging the perceptions of sexuality and age.
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“Out Of My Head” shows two male mouths reciting the chorus to Kylie Minogue’s song. It changes the popular song directed at a “boy” by a woman to a same sex context. "Save the last dance for me" is an intimate piece of interchanging mouths of a man and a woman that speak the chorus of a Drifters' song. The film evokes a relationship between male and female speaker as the mouth words of love to each other.
Susanne Wawra