Artist
Cristiana Nogueira
Artist
Artist Bio
(b. 1976, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a transdisciplinary artist, a professor at the Visual Arts Course at the Federal University of Amapá, Portugal and a PhD candidate in Contemporary Art at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
She has led various projects, including the ‘crueza ou inventário de um erotismo coletivo’ performance practice lab in 2020, supported by TAGV/LIPA/Colégio das Artes/UC, and the ‘habitar-se | coabitar-nos’ exhibition art residency in 2021. In 2022, she directed “Morte nos olhos” for the FESTEA – International Festival of Classical Themed Theater. Additionally, she has contributed to projects like “Rua zero” da Anozero’21-22 at the Coimbra Biennial, participated in the I Bienal das Amazônias (Belém/PA-BR), and organized the 10th edition of the Circuito Grude (an international fly-posting festival) in Coimbra in 2023.
Artwork Description
Originally created as a life-size installation, Cristiana Nogueira’s self-portrait The Queen of the House sees the artist boldly confront the viewer, face-to-face, to inspire discussion about the surge in domestic violence and femicide. It explores the role that female stereotypes play in propagating the problem, and the way deviating from norms often leads to physical abuse.
While seemingly conforming to these stereotypes, with predictable motifs, such as red lingerie, high heels and domestic objects, the image provokes and disrupts, by presenting a ‘non-standard’ body, with hairy legs and a cow mask that can be read as a reference to the way women often feel treated as faceless ‘cattle’, simply there to procreate and suckle. By presenting herself in this way, Nogueira aims to challenge how women are represented in the media, highlight the expectations placed upon them by a patriarchal society, and draw attention to the way this impacts the life experiences of many.
