Series of Photographs: Jamie, Vanessa, Ellen and Kim

Ana Teles’s work consists of the repetition of her colleagues’ practices, seeking to imitate their postures, processes and even their actual works. On the one hand she de-territorializes herself, on the other hand she appropriates someone else’s territory. With this strategy she is able to establish a confrontation between what others do and her own practice, between what belongs to others and what belongs to her. With these exchanges, she places herself in a critical position (in the sense of crisis) whereby she uninstalls her ideas, habits and processes, thus making way for the practices of other artists.

As part of this performance she simulates someone’s studio space and photographs herself as if that place and persona were her own. Teles uses a “disguise” in order to erase herself, but only to a certain extent: she is always visible. In fact, the other is there, but it is being appropriated, interpreted and questioned.

What is there of simulacra and truth in this operation? Essentially, these photographs show the gap between Ana Teles’s language and that of the other students. The result is a parody of the effort to simulate those identities and places to where she does not belong.